AT&T Developing All-In-One U-Verse and Femtocell Box [At&t]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/h7KoWkjWxg0/att-developing-all+in+one-u+verse-and-femtocell-box

An AT&T employee says that a U-Verse IPTV box with Femtocell capability is in the works. That's one set top unit that'll have TV, telephone, internet and improve cellular reception.

I've got particularly weak AT&T reception in my house, so any news on Femtocells, useful for improving coverage by bridging cell call data over a fixed internet connection, is good news.

The employee came upon this information as internal news of landline and wireless business integration. In this case, specifically, landline workers would be used to do low level wireless installs and wireless workers would soon be tinkering with U-Verse.

The box is supposed to come in the next year or so and hopefully, U-Verse's rollout will have progressed somewhat by then. More news is that the 3G Microcell, AT&T's stand alone Femtocell pictured above, is confirmed to be hitting by Q2 of this year. (Timing was previously unknown, although AT&T hinted at the Web 2.0 conference that movement would occur sometime in 2009.)