The author reports on how a UK company-with a little help from Category 5 cabling-is helping to realise the commercial potential of the GSM pico base station. ip.access, a Cambridge technology start-up is the supplier of the world's smallest GSM base station, the nanoBTS (base station transceiver), measuring a mere 210 mm by 280mm. It is fully compatible with the ETSI pico base station standard, and has a range of over 500 m in an uncluttered environment, while the in-building range is of the order of 50 m, depending on the building construction materials.