T-Mobile USA says it has no plans to offer 3G femtocells as it prefers to use WiFi for its indoor coverage strategy.
The revelation was in response to a report from Light Reading Mobile that indicated T-Mobile plans to offer 3G femtocells this year.
"We are focused on driving robust in-home coverage this year to provide voice quality and rich broadband experiences," writes a T-Mobile spokesman in an emailed reply to LR Mobile. "We will accomplish this goal by applying WiFi coverage to bolster in-home coverage and broadband. T-Mobile does not plan to use femtocells for either consumer or retail applications at this time."
T-Mobile revealed that although it is running a small pilot with a 3G repeater product, the operator has no plans to commercially introduce a 3G femtocell. T-Mobile has invested heavily in WiFi, incorporating unlicensed mobile access (UMA) clients in its smartphones for voice over WiFi calling. T-Mobile has more than 5 million UMA-enabled handsets and it says it handles 40 million WiFi calls per month.
For more:
- see this Light Reading article
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