Motorola's femtocell tests a success, let the trial begin
By Sean Cooper 
posted Nov 6th 2007 6:04PM
posted Nov 6th 2007 6:04PM
Busy times for the people over at Motorola, as new cells seems to be dropping at all the majors lately. Yesterday's announcement featured news that Moto's femtocell end to end testing is complete and that the trials are now set to begin. Femtocells, once called Access Point Base Stations are said to be set to turn the 3G world on its ear with improved access and better pricing -- we''ll believe that when we see it, at least the pricing bit -- while in areas covered by them. From a provider's point of view costs are reduced by having a simplified -- in an UMTS installation, the Node-B, RNC, and GSN -- in one package using wired broadband for connectivity. We'd love to be in on the testing, but it seems that honor has been reserved for a "major European operator" and not for the team at Engadget Mobile. 
"in an UMTS installation, the Node-B, RNC, and GSN -- in one package"
You don't expect us to believe you know what that means, do you?
I understand what you mean Mark, but not everyone can be a radio network designer / engineer or should be one.
I was just poking fun to let them know that none of the readers understand what any of that means -- I certainly don't. It's jargon to any of us without an accompanying definition.
Node-B is a term used in UMTS to denote the BTS (base transceiver station). In contrast with GSM base stations, Node B uses WCDMA as air transport technology. As in all cellular systems, such as UMTS and GSM, Node B contains radio frequency transmitter(s) and the receiver(s) used to communicate directly with the mobiles, which move freely around it. In this type of cellular networks the mobiles cannot communicate directly with each other but have to communicate with the BTSs.
RNC (Radio Network Controller) - The main element in the radio network subsystem that controls the use and reliability of radio resources.
GSN - GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) Support Node
Some network engineers might be reading engadget I would say, not always hanging from towers!
Actually I beleive Moto's competitors have had similar offerings for a while, what do you think Sean?