AT&T To Give Away 3G MicroCells To Customers Experiencing Poor Network Coverage
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AT&T To Give Away 3G MicroCells To Customers Experiencing Poor Network Coverage
Engadget is reporting that AT&T is getting ready to give away 3G MicroCells to its customers who are suffering from poor network coverage in their homes or offices. AT&T's 3G MicroCell is a range-boosting femtocell that helps in improving the cellular reception inside buildings and in areas where there is limited cellular coverage by tapping into the user's home broadband. The device is currently priced at $150 and an additional monthly cost of $19.99 for unlimited minutes.
Comments
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I think it's crap that I have to pay Att so that they can use MY broadband connection, so I can use ATt service!!!WTF??
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I love my micro-cell! AT&T gave us one for free last year. I don't bother paying the $19/month for unlimited minutes. It's basically free!! We normally only have 1-bar edge where we live and now that we have the mcell we can use our phones and send MMS. it's really changed our lives for the better!!
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lol ........ what a way to rip customers. If anybody needs to access their home broadband, they can create a wifi hotspot with a wifi card and then use that with their iphones. I just hope people are not that dumbb to make this purchase.
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So let me get this straight..I already pay hundreds of dollars a year in order to use ATTs crappy 3G network, now in order to actually use it they are going to charge me MORE money and sign ANOTHER contract?! And they wonder why people are so excited to finally dump them and go to a carrier that actually has a promising future. God I hat AT&T.
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Huh? What purchase? AT&T are gives them away for free to certain customers... the unlimited plan is optional... I think you are confused on how this works.......
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So you pay AT&T for service that doesn't always work and now they are so nice to their customers that they will give them this device to improve their coverage and charge the customer $20.00 a month more. Extra $240 a year for them, not bad.
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LOl... I would never pay them to use my broadband. Period. I will keep complaining about the network. I will save that extra money (240$/yr) to get new iphone on Verizon... but next yr..
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Not exactly free. Their using some of your broadband bandwidth and your electricity. I'm kinda guessing ya wont be turning it off unless ya want to miss incomming calls. I'm also guessing that any AT&T customer in the area will benefit from the 3G booster. From AT&T's point of view they'll be saving shed loads on building a 3G Mast and the ensuing maintenence/running costs. Smart move for AT&T me thinks.
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This has to be one of the dumbest things they can possibly do by adding insult to injury for AT&T customers that have had to put up with their crappy service. I jumped at the offer when they gave away the free ones almost a year ago. The caveat with the femtocells is they only work on a broadband if there is no other traffic on your home network. As soon as their is a little congestion (streaming, downloading, etc) the call quality decreases significantly. They are also prone to "cutting out" during the middle of conversations. I was eventually so fed up with the situation that i switched to T-mobile and shaved about 50 bucks a month off. For calling I would just suggest using Vonage (free to call cell/lan lines) or Skype (free skype to skype anywhere in the world) and both work really well on the iphone.As far as the iphone is concerned just wait till the 6th version when they have LTE bands and on other networks. The 600 bucks you can save a year by dropping AT&T would easily cover the purchase of a few iphones out of contract.
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no charge unless you cancel before 12 months then they back charge u $199 for MCell and 16.95 a month ONLY IF U CANCEL SERVICE WTF READ I think a lot of people like to complain PLEASE switch to Verizon then when u have the same problems over there u can see its the iphone. YES i love my iphone but thats the problem
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As far as random passers by are concerned, they won't be able to benefit from the sudden increase in network coverage. The microcell only allows certain phone numbers to use it that you input via the ATT website (if I'm not mistaken) so that random people can't leech off of your microcell like a badly protected WiFi connection. I'm also pretty sure that their is a cap on how many numbers that you can have using the mini-tower. So don't go thinking that you can hook your buddies in the hood up with some extra signal whenever they come over.
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The Verizon effect.
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cool. I thought they might be attempting somat similar to BT Fon service. If ya had a wi-fi router from BT Broadband they ringfenced 500mb of the bandwidth you'd paid them for, for the BT Fon service. Charging customers to use the Fon (wi-fi)service. You could go into the routers set-up and switch it off, but every time BT updated the router software they'd switch it back on again (Grrr). All AT&T would need to do would be remove the restriction on numbers which could use the booster.
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How can I have my phone stay on the MicroCell when I am at home?AT&T is taking away their own motivation to get their network expanded and fixed. Instead of "investing" they are making us pay for their shortcomings, and then they spin it like they are offering a great product.My MicroCell problem is that my iphone 4 constantly switches off the MicroCell and back onto 3G or Edge if it happens to find that signal for a bar or two.
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My microcell hasn't worked since christmas, I'm done with AT&T, Jan 1st I ordered a shiny new Droid X on verizon, and i don't even care that the iPhone was announced for verizon days after either, I'm just happy to be done with AT&T.
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I was given a credit months ago to cover the $150 the microcell costs. I asked about it as soon as it was avaliable in my area and though the first idiot i talked to didnt know what I was talking about, a knowledeable manager called me back the following day and offered me the credit to cover it. I will also say it was the first time in 4 years I had been anywhere I couldnt make calls inside my house and also mention outside I have a solid 2-3bars. Noone wants to have to go outside so naturally I complained and they profesionally offered me a excellent solution. Had same problem with verizon 4 years ago and they told me tough ****, and I switched to att. Thanks again Att
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that is because your broadband or router is garbage. I had a problem at first using dsl, where it would garble and cut out sometimes. Switched to cable internet and its been flawless with 2 pc's running torrents 24/7 and another streaming to the tv and 3 phones talking on the microcell at the sametime. TRUST me its either your router or lousy broadband connection.
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Just for clarification, the microcell is free if they identify you as living in a poor service area. The twenty dollars is if you want unlimited calling using the microcell. That could work for some customers Would have liked to give up their land line but could not because of poor connectionsThese are terrific if you live in a rural area with poor cell service.
