Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Ymax CEO Dan Barislow officially announced the companies plans to come out with a femtocell product. This new product is basically an enhanced version of it’s current and very popular magic Jack phone service. Currently the magic Jack provides users with unlimited local and long distance calling to the United States and Canada for a one time fee of $39.95 and then a cost of $19.95 per year thereafter. Ymax’s new product, which has been tabbed the ‘femtoJack‘, is expected to be released within the next 3-6 months and provide users with the same usage package at roughly the same price.
The main different between the femtoJack and magic Jack is that the femtoJack uses femtocell technology, which means it links up with your cell phone rather than a regular telephone. Through the use of a small 3G radio signal the femtoJack will allow users to get unlimited minutes through their cell phone, no wires required. All the user has to do is insert the femtoJack into their USB port, do a quick installation, and bring their cell phone within 8 feet of the femtoJack once. The femtoJack automatically syncs with your cell phone when you bring it within 8 feet and then you can roam around your home all you want and talk for free. Just stay within 3000 sq. ft. of your femtoJack because that’s it’s range limit.
To top all of this off rumor has it that you do not need a service plan of any kinda with a cell carrier. All you need is a GSM phone and the femto Jack. If you really think about it the femtoJack and your cell phone service are 100% completely separate of each other. The only common denominator is that they both use a cell phone as their operating device. So even for those that don’t have a cell plan, they can get a cheap GSM phone and the femtoJack and have unlimited wireless phone service through a cell phone whenever they are at home.
Now the only question that remains is whether Ymax and cell carriers can come to an agreement that allows for seamless hand off when someone linked up to a femtoJack leaves their home and goes out of it’s range while in the middle of a phone call.
The author of this blog is a 27 year old recent college graduate who has been blogging about different tech related topics since April of 2008. The femtoJack is just one of many tech related topics that he has written extensively about. 
I wonder what people with 20 or 30 years of experience become – über-experts ?
When your cellphone is associated with the femtocell, wouldn’t you be off the air as far as your cellphone provider’s network is concerned? Some cellular plans charge for forwarding calls, as well.
For that price I’d love to give it a try. I have AT&T and recently moved to an apartment where as soon as I walk through the door I get no service. I was waiting on the AT&T 3G Microcell (their version of a femtocell) but this is way cheaper! Plus I could use it in connection with my laptop and hotel WiFi so I don’t have the crazy international fees when in Europe!
For those of us who still live in the middle of nowhere and have broadband internet but no cell phone service this would be great. For years I didnt even have a land line until moving to a dead cell zone. With this I could at least drop to a very basic plan for incoming calls and use my cell for outgoing.
i used to have a land line no more, because i got a majicjack now saving a lot of money every year.I wish i could use majicjack phoneline for credit cards transitions for my small bizz.I need to know about that.