we first describe an example network including femtocell base stations then look at providing information about femto status to a user terminal . as shown in fig1 and 2 , a network 10 for wireless communications , through which a user terminal 34 may roam , includes two types of base station , namely macrocell base stations and femtocell base stations ( the latter being sometimes called “ femtos ”). one macrocell base station 22 is shown in fig1 and 2 for simplicity . each macrocell base station has a radio coverage area 24 that is often referred to as a macrocell . the geographic extent of the macrocell 24 depends on the capabilities of the macrocell base station 22 and the surrounding geography . within the macrocell 24 , each femtocell base station 30 provides wireless communications within a corresponding femtocell 32 . a femtocell is a radio coverage area . the radio coverage area of the femtocell 32 is much less than that of the macrocell 24 . for example , the femtocell 32 corresponds in size to a user &# 39 ; s office or home . as shown in fig1 , the network 10 is managed by a radio network controller , rnc , 170 . the radio network controller , rnc , 170 controls the operation , for example by communicating with macrocell base stations 22 via a backhaul communications link 160 . the radio network controller 170 maintains a neighbour list which includes information about the geographical relationship between cells supported by base stations . in addition , the radio network controller 170 maintains location information which provides information on the location of the user equipment within the wireless communications system 10 . the radio network controller 170 is operable to route traffic via circuit - switched and packet - switched networks . for circuit - switched traffic , a mobile switching centre 250 is provided with which the radio network controller 170 may communicate . the mobile switching centre 250 communicates with a circuit - switched network such as a public switched telephone network ( pstn ) 210 . for packet - switched traffic , the network controller 170 communicates with serving general packet radio service support nodes ( sgsns ) 220 and a gateway general packet radio support node ( ggsn ) 180 . the ggsn then communicates with a packet - switch core 190 such as , for example , the internet . the msc 250 , sgsn 220 , ggsn 180 and operator ip network constitute a so - called core network 253 . the sgsn 220 and ggsn 180 are connected by an operator ip network 215 to a femtocell controller / gateway 230 . the femtocell controller / gateway 230 is connected via the internet 190 to the femtocell base stations 30 . these connections to the femtocell controller / gateway 230 are broadband internet protocol connections (“ backhaul ”) connections . in fig2 , three femtocell base stations 30 and corresponding femtocells 32 are shown for simplicity . it is possible for a mobile terminal 34 within the macrocell 24 to communicate with the macrocell base station 22 in known manner . when the mobile terminal 34 enters into a femtocell 32 for which the mobile terminal is registered for communications within the femtocell base station 30 , it is desirable to handover the connection with the mobile terminal from the macrocell to the femtocell . in the example shown in fig2 , the user of mobile terminal 34 is a preferred user of the nearest 32 ′ of the femtocells 32 . as shown in fig2 , the femtocell base stations 30 are connected via the broadband internet protocol connections (“ backhaul ”) 36 to the core network ( not shown in fig2 ) and hence the rest of the telecommunications “ world ” ( not shown in fig2 ). the “ backhaul ” connections 36 , also known as digital subscriber line ( dsl ) backhaul , allow communications between the femtocell base stations 30 through the core network ( not shown ). the macrocell base station is also connected to the core network ( not shown in fig2 ). providing information regarding status of the femto to the user terminal requesting connection as shown in fig3 , each base station 30 includes a femto status identifier 11 that is connected to a text string formatter 13 . the status identifier 11 is also connected to a connection request handler 15 . the text string formatter 13 and connection request handler 15 and both connected to a connection - request reject - message builder 17 . the status identifier 11 operates to track the current status of the femto and provide information as to the current status to the text string formatter 13 . the text string formatter selects the text string associated with the received current status from a predetermined list . the predetermined list enables selection of a text string providing useful information about the femto . the predetermined list may be produced by a process of customisation by the femto owner or network operator , dependent upon how and where the femto is deployed . as previously mentioned , the femto 30 includes a digital subscriber line ( dsl ) backhaul 36 . the backhaul 36 is shared with other devices such as personal computers and laptops in the same area . in this example scenario , due to heavy usage of the backhaul by those other devices , the femto cannot , at that time , support establishment of a voice call to a user terminal . a process is undertaken as follows , described with reference to fig3 and 4 . as shown in fig4 , the user terminal 34 requests a voice call set - up by sending ( step a ) a radio resource control ( rrc ) connection request to the femto 30 . the connection request handler 15 in the femto 30 inspects an establishment cause field in the received rrc connection request message to determine ( step b ) what type of service is being requested by the user terminal 34 . in this example , the user terminal wishes to make a circuit - switched voice call . the femto 30 determines ( step c ) that the amount of available backhaul bandwidth is insufficient to support the required call . specifically the status identifier 11 provides ( step d ) information as to status to the connection reject handler 15 and text string formatter 13 indicating that the available backhaul bandwidth is insufficient to support the requested call . the text string formatter 13 provides ( step e ) the associated text string to the connection reject message builder 17 for sending back to the user terminal . the connection reject message builder 17 of the femto 30 includes ( step f ) the text string in an rrc reject message , and the femto sends ( step g ) the rrc reject message to the user terminal 34 . the user terminal 34 recognises that the message includes a text string and so displays ( step h ) that text string for the user of the user terminal to see . in this example the text string is “ insufficient bandwidth for a voice call ”. in some other similar examples , the text string can indicate other problems ; for example a problem with the backhaul , for example lack of required bandwidth , or for example that the allowed cap on bandwidth usage in a given period has been reached . dependent upon its wording , the text string can indicate for example that the femto is incorrectly configured , that an access control violation has occurred , or that the limit on the number of users allowed to simultaneously access the femto has been reached . in this example , the femto is a universal mobile telecommunications system ( umts ) femto . in some other similar examples the femto is a long term evolution ( lte ) femto . as shown in fig5 , the rrc reject message 40 includes a message type field 42 , a radio resource control ( rrc ) transaction identifier 44 , an initial user terminal identifier 46 , a rejection cause flag 48 indicating congested or unspecified , a wait timer 50 and a field for the free format text string 52 indicating the status of the femto , for example “ insufficient bandwidth for a voice call ”. in some examples , the information in the text string is readily modified , updated and tailored as required by particular network operators or femto owners . for example , the text string may reflect any special circumstances based on where the femto is deployed . for example , in certain deployments the femto &# 39 ; s backhaul bandwidth may be capped due to excessive usage and hence the user is informed for a time further calls will not succeed . for example , in certain other deployments , excessive usage of the backhaul may result in additional charges , about which the user is informed using the text string . the user can then make an informed decision as to whether to continue making calls at that time . as shown in fig6 , in a further example , the femto broadcasts status information to all user terminals that are within its coverage area . specifically a status field is included in a system information block ( sib ). this field is used to carry a free format text string giving the femto status information . a system information broadcast consists of multiple system information blocks , and is broadcast by the femto so as to be received by any user terminal within the femto &# 39 ; s coverage area . the system information broadcast identifies the femto and indicates how the femto may be accessed by a user terminal . in this universal mobile telecommunications system ( umts ) example , a system information broadcast includes at least twenty system information blocks ( sib ), and the twentieth sib , denoted sib20 is used to carry the text string . in each user terminal receiving and decoding the sib20 , the text string is extracted and displayed for the user of the user terminal to see . this approach may be particularly useful when a user terminal cannot even attempt to connect to the femto due to some fundamental reason , for example the femto is fully loaded by other user terminals or no backhaul bandwidth is available . of course , in this approach multiple user terminals in the coverage area are communicated to simultaneously by the femto . as shown in fig6 , in this example the femto 30 ′ includes a status identifier 31 connected to a text string formatter 33 which is connected to a system information block builder 35 . as shown in fig7 , in this example scenario , a first user terminal 34 ′ successfully establishes ( step a ′) a radio resource control ( rrc ) connection with the femto 30 ′ such that ( step b ′) the maximum number of user terminals that can be connected simultaneously to the femto is reached . should a further user terminal attempt to establish an active connection to the rest of the core network via the femto , the attempt will fail . in the femto 30 ′ the sib is formulated ( step c ′) for broadcast . specifically , the status identifier 33 tracks the femto &# 39 ; s status by keeping a record of current status . upon the status changing , the status identifier 31 provides information as to that status to the text string formatter 35 which selects an appropriate text string from a predetermined list , in this example . the text string is provided to the sib builder 37 which generates the sib including the text string . the sib is then broadcast ( step d ′) to all user terminals in the radio coverage area of the femto 30 ′. at each user terminal receiving the sib , the text string is extracted and displayed ( step e ′) for the respective user of each user terminal to see . in this example , the displayed text string states that the maximum number of user terminals that can be simultaneously connected to has been reached . for example the text string may be “ maximum number of ues connected ” thereby giving a clear indication to the user of why he cannot current establish a call themselves . an example of the sib is shown in fig8 consisting of a home nodeb name 39 ( in other words a femto identifier ) and the text string 41 . in another example , that is basically similar but is in line with long term evolution ( lte ), sib9 is used to send the text string in respect of the femto status . the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from its essential characteristics . the described embodiments are to be considered in all respects only as illustrative and not restrictive . the scope of the invention is , therefore , indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description . all changes that come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are to be embraced within their scope . a person skilled in the art would readily recognize that steps of various above - described methods can be performed by programmed computers . some embodiments relate to program storage devices , e . g ., digital data storage media , which are machine or computer readable and encode machine - executable or computer - executable programs of instructions , wherein said instructions perform some or all of the steps of said above - described methods . the program storage devices may be , e . g ., digital memories , magnetic storage media such as a magnetic disks and magnetic tapes , hard drives , or optically readable digital data storage media . some embodiments involve computers programmed to perform said steps of the above - described methods .