Vodafone is conducting trials for 3G mobile base stations based on the technology of femtocells.

An excerpt from News.com:

A spokesperson for Vodafone said on Friday that Vodafone had said only that it was “looking into the technology,” and had no fixed plans for its deployment. “While there are obvious potential advantages, such as enhanced indoor coverage and DSL as backhaul, there are still technical areas we need to make sure are right,” the spokesperson told ZDNet UK. “We haven’t made any announcements as such. As we do with any embryonic technology, we are exploring it.”

Vodafone is considering products from supplier Ubiquisys.

A few days ago, Cisco also announced its investment in femtocell company IP.access. The technology takes a significant load off of the cellular infrastructure for boosting telecom signals.