Motorola Helping Consumers Ditch Landlines

One of Motorola’s releases this week at CES will help consumers finally ditch the landline in their home. It’s a new digital photo frame that combines a CDMA femtocell with a software-based phone. How does it work? The femtocell will connect with your existing broadband connection, boosting cell phone coverage in your home. It will be especially helpful for current and next generation connection speeds such as 3G and 4G Wi-max. If you are tired of only receiving Edge or no connection throughout your house or areas in your office, this is the perfect solution to guarantee you will receive the service you are paying for.
This year will be about having another device in your home. Whether it is this product, or it’s a femtocell embedded in the screen of your refrigerator, a new form of connectivity will be arriving. Some may see this as the Carriers penetrating your household, which in some sense is true, but at least these devices will have multiple functions such as photo’s, RSS readers, weather reports, etc. As Om Malik points out, Rob Malnati, a senior manager at Motorola, said these devices will likely be offered through the carriers as part of the current subsidized model for consumer premise equipment. It will be available for trials in the first part of this year. At least it will be better than another blinking black box with wires coming out of it. Yuck.