While not making any commitment to deploy the technology, the CTO of Verizon Wireless CTO Tony Melone has revealed that the company is closely examining how femtocells could help improve CDMA coverage.

In an interview with Unstrung, Melone said that the company can see applications for femtocells within its existing network infrastructure before it starts deploying LTE technology in 2009.

Rival US mobile operator Sprint Nextel has already taken the decision to use femtocells and has started to sell the devices to consumers in Denver, Indianapolis and Nashville. Sprint CTO Barry West is also enthusiastic about using the technology with the operator’s forthcoming WiMAX network.

However, not everyone is so enthusiastic about the technology. “As a standalone device, they solve some problems but we have to ask how many devices do consumers really want in their home?” said Ericsson’s North American CTO, Arun Bhikshesvaran.

Operators are also concerned about the costs of these consumer units and the potential for interference with the existing cellular network. Vendors at the CTIA exhibition quoted prices between US$100 and US$200 per box, and suggested the operators could subsidise or even rent the units to users.