Faced with cost-conscious users and ever more vigilant regulators, mobile telecoms operators are finding it harder to make the sort of profit margins they were used to in the pre-recession boom years.

Providing new services is an obvious way to improve growth, and the development of 3G technology - known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) - offers download speeds of up to 100Mbps and should be enough to keep even the most bandwidth-hungry road warrior amused. But operators are wary of the "if you build it, they will come" models of old and are looking for different approaches to beefing up their networks without huge front-loaded investments.

Enter the femtocell, essentially a mini base station that a business can install in its premises. The idea is that, rather than building on the existing one-size-fits all network, it makes more sense to target coverage where it is most needed. The good news is that the cost of entry is low and it can be deployed quickly: one US supplier, magicJack, has even integrated a full GSM femtocell into a USB stick which is simply plugged into a laptop.

Along with recent deals between UK operators such as Vodafone and O2 to share network capacity, femtocells mean mobile providers would be able to compete with fixed broadband networks. But success depends on persuading consumers to buy into the idea and so far take-up has been relatively poor.

Interference is another issue, says global trade body GSMA - this could be a problem both for femtocells and passers-by whose mobiles might be disrupted. The group claims the devices have to be carefully sited and industry standards are needed to ensure small and beautiful doesn't turn into small and chaotic.

For downloadable figures forecasting the expected growth of femtocell usage, see our Data Feed section.