AT&T Launching Femtocell To Boost In-Home Coverage
By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 3/25/2010
Las Vegas - AT&T Wireless in mid-April plans to expand availability of its first residential femtocell, which is designed to improve in-home cellular coverage and reduce traffic on the carrier's wireless network, AT&T announced here at CTIA Wireless 2010.The $149.99 AT&T 3G MicroCell, made in collaboration with Cisco, operates like a miniature cellular base station, routing cellphone calls and data sessions over the Internet via a home's broadband modem. It's promoted as the only femtocell to support both 3G data and voice services.
Verizon Wireless and Sprint also offer femtocells, and T-Mobile offers a similar type of service.
The femtocell has been available since September for trials in select markets.
Through an on-line account, purchasers enable up to 10 cellphone numbers to access the femtocell, and up to four cellphones will be able to make calls simultaneously through the device.
Minutes used over the femtocell count against a user's regular cellphone plan, but for $19.99 a month, AT&T lets individual or family-plan customers make unlimited calls through a 3G MicroCell without using up their wireless voice-plan minutes.
Consumers who select 3G MicroCell calling plans are eligible for a $100 mail-in-rebate to reduce the femtocell's price to $49.99. If they also buy AT&T residential DSL or U-verse 1.5MB or higher residential-broadband service, the purchaser is eligible for another $50 via mail-in-rebate to reduce the femtocell's price to free.
Consumers self-install and self-activate the femtocell. Channels of distribution weren't disclosed.
Talkback
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The real purpose of a femtocell as I understand it is not to serve as a general purpose extension to AT&T's spotty service that anyone could use, but a way for people who live in even less well covered areas such as the mountainous area that I live in to be able to use their cell phones as if they were in a well covered area. However, my old 900 MHz wireless phones work well all over my two acres and are simply hooked up to my old POTS line. Frankly, being the curmudgeon that I've become about gadgets, I'm GLAD that my cellphone doesn't work around my house. Fewer nuisance calls that way. Finally, when all this digital phone crap breaks down due to an emergency like the earthquake we all expect any day, My Ham Radio gear will still get me out to the real world. No monthly charges on that either.
Don McCallum - 2010-25-3 18:48:20 EDT -
It gets even worse Danny. As a user of one of these devices I can tell you that they require a GPS link to validate you are in your region with it. This also means it has to sit near a window. You would think they would create a mini AT&T zone with it, but no, they couldn't even get that part right. Only phones on THE SAME AT&T ACCOUNT PLAN can use the microcell, making it nearly worthless for anyone but a family full of AT&T'ers, who probably already have good coverage if they all bought and were happy with AT&T phones.
Tech support for the device is also painful, and I had to replace my unit at the store at least once due to it being DOA. Buyers can expect to spend far to much time at the store just to purchase one, since the rep must activate it, assign it to JUST your account, and verify all of this to your AT&T account. Once at home you have to go through a procedure to get the device to connect, then accept and allow your phone to use it.
For $149 and use of my network, Danny summed it up nicely: this is an absurd, almost slap in the face of a "fix" for AT&T's network, and it completely misses the mark. Lower the price by $50, allow ANY AT&T phone to use it, and no minutes charge ... win, win, and win.
Steve K. - 2010-25-3 15:04:34 EDT -
Unreal. ATT service is a crap shoot. So charge customers even more money to get service in their own homes?!?!? Are you kidding me?!?! ATT should be paying it's customers to install it and let any ATT mobile customer connect to it. Maybe this way ATT could offer better service overall.
Thanks ATT, announce to the World that your service is sub-par in markets like NYC and SF, and charge those customers even more to get service in their own home. MORONS, if I have an internet connection in my own home already what makes you think I need your 3G data???
So your telling me if I want to make phone calls in my own home (because I get terrible ATT service there), I buy something from you and potentially pay additional fees, to make a phone call and REDUCE THE LOAD ON YOUR NETWORK?!?!?! Where is the WIN WIN here?
ATT if you didnt have the iPhone I would leave in a heartbeat. At least you lowered your service cancellation fees.
Danny C. - 2010-25-3 14:23:34 EDT
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