Friday, January 30, 2009

Cool Technology of the Week

Yesterday, I wrote about the technology I own. I'm constantly evaluating what works and what does not work. Call it my personal application of Kaizen.

Of all the technologies that I outlined yesterday, only one is having significant quality issues - the AT&T 3G cellular signal on my cell phone. Since I rarely use a land line, this can be particularly challenging during winter months. It's 20 degrees outside and I have to stand in 3 feet of snow on the front lawn to make or receive a call from my home.

I absolutely understand AT&T's issue. There are only 5000 households in Wellesley, MA. Implementing a robust cell phone network in a suburban community is less profitable than in a dense urban work environment. As I tell my staff, AT&T is the best network in the world, just not Wellesley.

What can I do? The answer is a home micro-cell tower which plugs into my FIOS internet connection and offers 5000 square feet of cellular coverage, enabling my home cell phones to communicate via voice over IP to the micro-cell tower, then link over broadband to the AT&T network.

The cool technology of the week is the Cisco/AT&T personal 3G mini cellular tower for home
Features include:

* Seamless roaming from the micro-cell to a real cell tower when I leave home
* Works with any AT&T supported 3G cell phone (Blackberry Bold, iPhone 3G)
* Available unlimited minute plans when connected to the micro-cell

No details have been released on the availability date or pricing structure, but I'll be watching this cool technology very closely.

4 comments:

ukdataguy said...

I had the same problem, different provider, Sprint. In their case they have the Airave which I have installed and have increased to 5 bars whereas before I was lucky to get one.
All femtocell technology seems to work the same way but is being market differently by the carriers, with taking a different approach than both Verizon and Sprint who have their own branded systems.

jwh said...

how about a future blog on your strategy of handling of multiple passwords...unless of course it risks your security!

Khan said...

I live in rural Maryland and use ZBoost (http://www.wi-ex.com/Page3427.aspx) home cellular range extender - which I got more than a year ago. Now there is full signal in the house and almost none if I am outside. Has worked flawlessly for both AT&T and Verizon phones.

John Halamka said...

Folks - thanks for the insight into other products.

Regarding security/passwords, see my blog entry about our approach