Is T-Mobile testing a 4G femtocell or mobile hotspot combination device that will connect to your home broadband line and route your voice and data traffic over this line? We might not have the right terminology for the device but it sounds a lot like a femtocell. Apparently, the device offers Wifi as well and we presume this will offload data from the network. This is designed to fill coverage gaps and/or relieve the macro network or outdoor network. A T-Mobile femtocell would be a major breakthrough for the company if they do roll this out to its customer base. T-Mobile has the reputation of having less than stellar coverage in many rural areas throughout the US and this would certainly help many of these customers fill in those gaps for their home or office.
Discovering this device has sparked our curiosity because T-Mobile has always maintained their stance that they don't believe in femtocells and will stick with a Wifi strategy. The Bandluxe device is priced at $249 which similar to Verizon who sells their femtocell for $250, AT&T sells their MicroCell for about the same and each comes with a monthly data subscription. We think it would be quite disruptive for T-Mobile to subsidize the costs of these devices made by BandRich and also offer them without a data subscription. The device is called HSPA+ WLAN Pocket Router. We would appreciate any clarification about the type of device, data subscription, and its functionality or launch date. Will this device work on T-Mobile's HSPA+ network today?