Don't you hate it when you're in the middle of an important call and your cellphone signal suddenly drops, making the conversation impossible? Some buildings seem to block the cellphone signal because of the construction materials and force people to stand near an open window if they want their mobiles to work.

A new device has just been presented and manufacturers said that it would greatly increase the indoor coverage of mobile phone networks. It will be commercially available in less than a year.

The devices is based on so-called femtocells, which are small indoor base stations for third-generation mobile phone networks, that will present the mobile operators with an opportunity to increase the coverage at a significantly lower cost than the actual method, which involves a large number of cell towers.

By plugging them into the broadband internet connection, it will act like a wireless internet base station, allowing the consumers to use voice and data services with the average cellphones. This could even encourage the operators to lower the cost of the calls and the customers to use the mobile phone like a fixed line.

"It can encourage fixed-mobile substitution," said Andy Tiller, Vice President Marketing of UK-based femtocell manufacturer ip.access.

For now, the device is ready for laboratory trials, with consumer trials likely in the fourth quarter. The initial costs of the applications will be a bit high, at around 150 Euros, but once the mass production starts, they could drop, depending on the demands coming from operators, who must find compelling reasons for consumers to use such a device.

The main advantage will be the fact that it will provide customers with the opportunity to use one phone to make calls over the fixed line at home at cheap rates as well as over the mobile phone network when away from home, without the need of a special handset.