In telecommunications, a femtocell is a small cellular
base station — or a wireless
access point — that is typically used to improve indoor cellular reception inside a home or small business. A femtocell connects to the
carrier’s network via broadband and can support up to five mobile phones. The main benefits to using femtocell technology is an overall increase in call quality and an increase of indoor cellular coverage. Femtocells are usually compatible with
CDMA2000,
WiMAX, and
UMTS devices. May also be called a
home base station or known by its older name of
access point base station.