RadiSys - Femtocells are essentially small footprint, low power 3G wireless radio systems that plug into a residential or business broadband connection to provide a mobile signal directly to that location. Mobile phone subscribers can use their existing mobile handsets or broadband air cards to access voice, data, and video needs for a small number of users. Whereas a femtocell can typically service a residential environment with a range of up to 5,000 feet, a picocell is designed to be deployed in larger building and public areas such as shopping malls with a range of up to 30,000 square feet.

Femtocell/picocell environments are designed to deliver a stronger 3G wireless network connection than the mobile network's own Radio Access Network (RAN) since these wide area networks are prone to attenutation inside buildings and other structures and these locations could also |be in a network coverage gap. In fact, about 30% of mobile calls are made at home and coverage holes in these residential areas can be addressed via femtocells.

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