Femtocells are low-cost, short-range base stations deployed by home users to improve indoor voice and data coverage. They offer significant benefits in terms of capacity, coverage, and cost efficiency compared to traditional macrocell networks. This article surveys the technical and business aspects of femtocells, including their potential to enhance network performance, reduce infrastructure costs, and improve user experience. The key advantages of femtocells include better coverage and capacity due to their short transmit-receive distance, reduced interference, and improved macrocell reliability. They also provide cost benefits by reducing operating and capital expenditure for operators, and reduce subscriber turnover by improving indoor coverage. Femtocells enable efficient use of power and frequency resources, leading to higher system spatial spectral efficiency. However, they present several technical challenges, including interference management, timing and synchronization, backhaul quality of service, and network infrastructure security. The article also discusses the business aspects of femtocells, such as the need for strategic investments, competitive pricing, and the impact of cost constraints on solution selection. The technical challenges include managing interference between macrocells and femtocells, ensuring proper timing and synchronization, and providing acceptable QoS over the IP backhaul. Voice femtocells face additional challenges in interference management, handoff procedures, and emergency services. Network infrastructure challenges include securely bridging femtocells with the operator network and ensuring scalability. Research directions include interference management techniques, MIMO femtocells, and other advanced technologies to improve performance and efficiency. The article concludes that femtocells have the potential to significantly enhance indoor network access while reducing the burden on macrocell networks. They offer a promising solution for improving wireless capacity and coverage, but require careful planning and implementation to address the associated technical and business challenges.Femtocells are low-cost, short-range base stations deployed by home users to improve indoor voice and data coverage. They offer significant benefits in terms of capacity, coverage, and cost efficiency compared to traditional macrocell networks. This article surveys the technical and business aspects of femtocells, including their potential to enhance network performance, reduce infrastructure costs, and improve user experience. The key advantages of femtocells include better coverage and capacity due to their short transmit-receive distance, reduced interference, and improved macrocell reliability. They also provide cost benefits by reducing operating and capital expenditure for operators, and reduce subscriber turnover by improving indoor coverage. Femtocells enable efficient use of power and frequency resources, leading to higher system spatial spectral efficiency. However, they present several technical challenges, including interference management, timing and synchronization, backhaul quality of service, and network infrastructure security. The article also discusses the business aspects of femtocells, such as the need for strategic investments, competitive pricing, and the impact of cost constraints on solution selection. The technical challenges include managing interference between macrocells and femtocells, ensuring proper timing and synchronization, and providing acceptable QoS over the IP backhaul. Voice femtocells face additional challenges in interference management, handoff procedures, and emergency services. Network infrastructure challenges include securely bridging femtocells with the operator network and ensuring scalability. Research directions include interference management techniques, MIMO femtocells, and other advanced technologies to improve performance and efficiency. The article concludes that femtocells have the potential to significantly enhance indoor network access while reducing the burden on macrocell networks. They offer a promising solution for improving wireless capacity and coverage, but require careful planning and implementation to address the associated technical and business challenges.