Your very own cell tower

Not getting the cell phone reception that you need?  Maybe you should bring your own femtocell repeater on your next trip.  Sprint has been selling them under the Airave brand name since late last year.  Now Verizon Wireless is joining the fray, offering their Verizon Wireless Network Extender for a one-time charge of $250.

You’ll need to hook it up to a broadband connection in your home (or hotel) and the ability to get a GPS fix on the device but once connected the Network Extender will provide both voice and 1xRTT data speeds to mobile devices in the vicinity.  Verizon claims coverage of up to 5000 square feet, which should cover a pretty decent sized house, or most of my apartment building here in NYC. 

Verizon claims that it uses about 40Kbps of bandwidth per call, which isn’t too bad.  You can even lock it down so only you and your friends can use the device.

AT&T has their own femtocell product in development with an expected release later this year.  Theirs will support 3G data services, though I’d imagine that will put a much bigger hit on the bandwidth requirements.

So if your travels find you on the road in locations where your Verizon Wireless phone isn’t working so well, just bring your own cell tower with you.