CAE50-Gemini: Clearly better than FEMTO Cells

In the past few months, a few carriers have come out with their solution to the problems of dropped calls experienced in a home. Having reviewed this solution, the bottom line: we are not impressed. There are several issues that are important for the consumer to weigh before purchasing the expensive units from the carriers.

FEMTO cells depend on the speed of the internet connection. Upload speed is as important as the download. Most consumers have good download speed at their home through their broadband provider, but the upload speed is far from ideal and slow. As well, with the use of the internet for media streaming, packet loss levels are now at an all time high, and the ‘ Hops’ , that is the amount of different providers you are connecting to until you get to the carrier’s servers, are random and large. All provide increase in latency, the time it takes to reach the server from your router which translates into a decrease in reliability. The increased time will result in excessive gaps between conversations between your cell phone and the party at the other end. However, The CAE50-Gemini gives you the same service as you can get outside your home, which in 99.99% of time ..great!

What the carriers are failing to tell you, is that the FEMTO cell you are buying works only for them. One Provider. Once you sign up and purchase the unit, you are stuck with their service. This means if you switch carriers, you will need to buy another FEMTO cell. IF you have two or more different service providers in your home ( as is often the case) only one will benefit or you need two boxes all connected to the same poor connection. Don’t even think about this for your office unless everyone is on the same service! The CAE50-Gemini repeater supports all the cellular providers at any time, so you are not locked in to a contract or provider, and you have increased the signal at your premises for everyone to use.

Then there is the question as to why the cellular service provider is not rebating you the cost of the broadband connection that you pay to get their service. There are even questions to the legality of cellular carriers providing you cell phone service through the internet. The FEMTO experiment was also performed in Europe.

There are very few cellular providers using it today due to the problems associated with it. So our recommendation is simple. Don’t waste your money on a FEMTO cell. Get the CAE50-Gemini repeater instead.

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