Sprint’s mobile handoff service uses femtocell technology rather ...
Sprint’s mobile handoff service uses femtocell technology rather than Wi-Fi because femtocell is more secure, Avi Bhatia, Sprint Nextel’s wireless voice services director, told us. Last month, Sprint launched Airwave, a femtocell service enabling handoffs between a home base…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
station and a carrier wireless network. An Airwave customer connects a book-sized Samsung device to a wired broadband connection. The unit acts as a small cell site for a home. A similar T-Mobile service, HotSpot@Home, lets select phones link to Wi-Fi networks. The Sprint system uses licensed spectrum, making it “infinitely more difficult to break into” than Wi-Fi, which is “fairly open,” Bhatia said. Wi-Fi can be secured, but hackers still find it easier to monitor, he said. Airwave is available in Denver and Indianapolis, but Sprint will deploy in Nashville, Tenn., this year and nationwide in early 2008. Sprint began in Denver and Indianapolis because of their existing infrastructure and appealing demographics, Bhatia said.