Motorola Inc’s Motorola GSM Products Division announced a family of digital base stations at CeBIT, all of which can be used outdoors. The M-Cell6 is a six-carrier digital cell site that is compatible with a number of international cellular networks and can be extended to 24 carriers simply by linking modules together. M-Cell6 is aimed at high volume cells in urban locations and is said to offer a small, high performance unit with better interconnection to the network than other base cells. The M-Cell2 is a smaller device, with two carrier units, expandable to six-carriers and is aimed at rural or urban hot spot locations. While units can be linked in a modular fashion, they can also be linked using fibre optic cable at distances of up to 1,000 y ards; this, says Motorola, makes it suitable for providing coverage in tunnels and campus sites. The final product, the M-Cellmicro is a new concept for Motorola; it’s a very small base station, with low power requirements, and designed to enable network providers to offer full coverage in a given area by providing additional infill and underlay coverage. Motorola describes it as a product that will add value to networks. It can be combined with the M-Cell6 to establish a combined macro and cellular system. It is a dedicated cell site for microcellular applications in Groupe Speciale Mobile, Digital Cellular and Personal Cellular Systems. Motorola believes that the M-Cellmicro is the smallest fully-capable base station available: it measures some 2 4.4 high, 31.5 wide and 7.5 deep.
