Ericsson is introducing the Home 3G Access Point to provide local indoor coverage in homes and small offices providing full HSPA performance.

HSPA supports up to 14Mbps in the downlink and 5.8Mbps in the uplink. With the Home 3G Access Point installed, the end-user's mobile phone or 3G/HSPA enabled PC will switch from the regular outdoor radio network to the indoor radio base station the moment he or she walks through the door.

Mikael Bäck, vice president of WCDMA Radio Networks at Ericsson, says: "The benefit of the Home 3G Access Point is that people can use the same device anywhere they go with the best possible performance. The operator also has the opportunity to offer one specific tariff for the home and a different one when the end-user is on the move."

The indoor home access point is small in size and is connected to the operator's network using any broadband access such as ADSL2+ as the backhaul link.

The home access point is compatible with any WCDMA/HSPA device and offers secure access both over the air and over the backhaul link. This means that all traffic is securely encrypted and that authentication is done with the regular security features that the SIM-card offers for regular mobile phones. The SIM-card authentication mechanism can also be used to support secure payment solutions.

The Home 3G Access Point will be available through selected operators, starting in 2007.