AT&T MicroCell MicroSite goes live; MicroLaunch imminent
The advent of femtocells is nothing short of fantastic. Think about it: A carrier has terrible service where you live or work, so what do you do about it? You get a device called a femtocell that will let you use your land-based broadband internet connection (that you pay another company for) to make calls and use data on your phone. Of course you don’t get a discount for using land-based broadband instead of your carrier’s cellular network, but you just mutter under your breath and fork over the cash anyway. The best part? Word on the street suggests AT&T — the final among the big four to bring a femtocell solution to market – will be charging $20 per month for the privilege of using another company’s land-based network as a band-aid for its crappy cell coverage in your area. Awesomeness. For those dying to fit into this scenario, the MicroSite is now live and a launch is imminent.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
there is also a rumor that in exchange for $20 a month you’re going to get unlimited anytime minutes from your cell and it will go down to $10 if you have AT&T broadband service
lame.. shouldnt have to pay this much. Not worth it, better off finding a carrier that actually works at your house.
Why people always crying over crappy coverage. No provider covers everywhere. Not landline, cell, or even cable providers. So just quit your crying and move out the boondocks.
try NYC
i’ve plenty of instances where i go to the bank or the store in midtown and my coverage goes to zero because the signals bounce off the windows and the walls. i bet there are a lot of people who live in manhattan get bad coverage because they live in the wrong part of the building
$20 per month? And people criticized VZW for a one-time $150 fee.
At least this is 3G, unlike Verizon’s and Sprint’s though. However, since I got my VZW femtocell in January, the big V installed and launched a cell tower near me so I don’t need it anymore.
… Every blog has reported this wrong for the most part: It’s $20/mo IF YOU WANT TO USE IT UNLIMITED. If you want to use your regular pool of minutes, IT’S FREE.
@Dan
Whats the difference if it’s 3g? If you are in or around your house might as well use wifi….
When is Bell Canada going to get something like this. I live in a little valley that doesn’t get coverage until the top of the road. This would be perfect!
Cell companies should give these devices away free within your first 30 days of signing up or re upping your 2 year if you find coverage lacking where the skeptical engineers promised a few bars where you live. Think about it, anyone that knows what these devices are will know if they need it. Greed will keep them from really succeeding, if they just handed them out and were honest with people, “coverage is crap in your house but we have your back, here plug this in and your good”. You would see far less people jump ship over crappy coverage they were told was fine…
more revenue and less responsibility on at&t’s part.
Ahh yes. SPRINT Palm Pre here I come.
…or, they could just allow a connection via UMA… imagine that novel idea, connecting using standard hardware that probably 80 percent of households with broadband have…
Yeah… or buy a cellular amplifier and own it yourself, take it when you move, sell it when you don’t need it anymore. You can even put one in your car!! No monthly fees, and it works with any carrier!
These devices are lame. Now the companies expect the their customers to provide there on cell tower (these devices) and a backhaul (the network connection. I pay $70 a month for them to provide the service not me.
Wow, such a lack of information that other sites have had well before this article was posted. FAIL
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/09/20/atandts-3g-microcell-does-unlimited-calling-but-it-aint-cheap/
You don’t have to have any monthly fee to use it!
If you want unlimited calling on it, then you pay 20 bucks IF you don’t have AT&T landline or internet service. If you have AT&T landline and internet, unlimited calls are free. If you just have landline or just Internet, then it is 9.99 for unlimited calling.
For the last time, the $20 is for UNLIMITED CALLING ON ANY 10 phones that are connected to the microcell, it is absolutely FREE per month if you are ok with your current minute plan! Please stop making this look so terrible.
Someone tell me why this is better than what T-Mobile offers with UMA over any WiFi connection that you have access to?
I wish more carriers would do UMA. No extra hardware and the extra cost is optional (you only pay $10 per month extra if you don’t want the calls placed over UMA to count against your minutes).
So unless you are already paying for AT&T Internet and landlines this thing costs 20 a month to make up for their awful coverage on your cell phone? That makes sense.
@ Eric
@ Steven
NO! There is NO MONTHLY CHARGE if you do not want to add unlimited calling! It is free to use with your current monthly plan
@Eric:
This is better than T-Mobiles thing because (I assume, at least) it works with any phone. With T-Mobile, you don’t need extra external hardware, but the phone has to have extra internal hardware.
At least the “any phone” thing is how Sprint’s device works… so I assume that’s also the case with this device.
Gary, well that’s pretty cool, why does thIs BGR post make it seem otherwise?
If they would have had this two months ago when i moved to a new house with a complete deadzone, I would have stayed with AT&T.
I’d just find a carrier that works where I need it and Not pay for this. that’s it
Posted from BGR Mobile (iPhone).
I would happily pay extra for UMA in my VZW phone. The best of both worlds (VZW and UMA).
WOW ZAch… nothing like actually READING a carrier’s offer before crying about how bad it is and then posting inacurate and skwed info. But you posted some crap so you got your quota for today out of the way.
@ Steven
I’m a rep at at&t and just had a training class on the microcell. Not sure why both BGR and Engadget hastily put shit info out on the web, but it sure is giving off a terrible vibe on a great product and service.
@Jon
Most VZW phones as of now don’t have wifi (cue the HA-HA!s) but when there is 3G, I have never felt the need for wifi. Which is why it would have been nice if the VZW Network Extender offered 3G coverage.