[ NNSquad ] Re: MagicJack introducing cheap "femtocell"

[Stefano Quintarelli <stefano@quintarelli.it>]

as I understand from the article it's basically a femto with some sw  
hacks to allow handset registration.

its legality, from a patent perspective might be uncertain. It would  
seem strange to me if they were able to obtain licenses to the gsm   
patent pools.

from the frequency usage perspective, it varies significantly  
depending on countries.

the uk have licensed separate usages for low power devices for indoor  
use to companies other than the usual telcos.

in some countries low power devices are allowed within strict limits  
with no specific exclusion of gsm low bands

in other countries it is clearly prohibited

in others, it is unclear

the reason is that the regulations are somewhat layered. first came a  
liberalization of srd (short range devices) then the regulations for  
gsm;  at those times, with the cost of bts, noone really thought that  
bts would eventually economically become srd.

I looked into it in some european countries in the past, asking to  
various NRAs and obtained different answers.

ciao, s.

  [ Another issue -- how easily could such devices be subverted
    to intercept calls inappropriately?  Hmm.

       -- Lauren Weinstein
          NNSquad Moderator ]

--
http://blog.quintarelli.it

Il giorno 08/gen/2010, alle ore 19.44, Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com 
> ha scritto:

> MagicJack introducing cheap "femtocell"
>
> http://bit.ly/7qiZou  (AP)
>
> The actual legality of this particular device is not immediately clear
> to me without digging into some details.  I'm wondering if it has
> received FCC approval?  I didn't find obviously relevant references in
> the FCC database during an initial search.
>
> --Lauren--
> NNSquad Moderator