There’s been a lot of chatter surrounding the forthcoming magicJack femtocell. YMAX, magicJack’s parent announced during CES that their version of a femtocell is on the way. The magicJack femtocell will apparently operate with GSM wireless phones, and route those wireless calls over the Internet, in much the same way their current VoIP device does.
Since then, there’s been much debate as to whether such an approach is even legal under current FCC rules. magicJack founder Dan Borislow has an opinion on this, and he shares it with Laptop Magazine. He tells Laptop, “It’s definitely legal. There are a couple of different ways to go. You can operate under Part 15 [a section of the FCC regulation regrading unlicensed transmissions], and there’s further exemptions if you operate under a boat, plane, or any transportation. They’re all exempt as well even without Part 15. You can use it in a car, taxi, in a park, a home, anywhere.”
Interesting approach, although not sure how inside “a home” qualifies under some type of transportation exemption. I’ll leave it to the telecom lawyers to hash these legal questions. But its quite clear — Borislow and his magicJack team intend to push the legality envelope, and a MagicJack femtocell is on the way. Borislow says it should be out by 2Q10 and cost about the same as the current magicJack. Get more details in this Laptop article.