AT&T's 3G MicroCell is Cell Tower for Your Home

Create a bad service and than create a solution to that same problem you created for a small fee. Nice!! No, thanks.

i already see a scheme brewing up from att. they will decrease the power in their towers such that coverage will suck indoors, in turn sort of forcing their customers to buy this damn device. there are already signal boosters out there. they are a little expensive and a little buggy, but they do essentially the same thing. since this would work as a voip thing, would be cool if you can carry it with you everywhere, especially oversees, and make calls for free, but i doubt att will allow that (knowing how greedy they are).
jmecherul

you beat me to it ricardok, lol

no thanks

That is outrageous price gouging! For as much as you pay for iPhone rental you should be able to go without having a landline and internet bills as well.

I don't have AT&T mobile service for a reason...and here is another! I do have AT&T DSL but only because I dislike Comcast even more. When are consumers going to get more choice in internet services? The choices we have now are not great...but at least I have more choice in the mobile market.

They should change the ads to the nations fastest 3g network for $20 bucks more!

what has kept me from getting the iPhone is the same thing this product is all about... pure unadulterated greed!!! Sprint gives you unlimited everything for $99/mnth... same service from AT&T for an iPhone is $150/mnth... and now they expect you to add this to your service... unbelievable... anyone know when AT&T looses it's monopoly on the iPhone?.. i hope Sprint gets rights soon... as long as they keep the all in for $99...

You can always just get a signal repeater and stick the damn thing on your roof. They aren't cheap but at least you won't be giving AT&T more money. Would pay for itself over the course of a couple years, considering the 20 bucks a month they want to charge.

I could see this being nice for businesses with poor 3G signal strength, especially those already using AT&T for internet and phone. If a business has wifi for its employees/customers, a free way to offer quality 3G signal could potentially lower the amount of users on its wifi, keeping more bandwidth for those who don't use 3G at all.

I doubt they will lower signal strength on the towers to force people into purchasing this. I think it is more of a business tactic to get people to switch from cable/voip to DSL/phone in order to get free signal boost in their household for their phone.

So, I should pay $20/month to basically increase coverage for AT&T? If I'm going to have this little box in my house that is boosting signal AT&T should be paying me. Hows about I pay for cell phone service and you deliver said service? Don't try to deliver a half assed service and then claim "well you can spend another $20 a month and get excellent service at home." Fix the service I'm already paying for.

Counting down the days until I can get rid of AT&T. 60 days before the contract ends I'm going to march into an AT&T store and end my contract and when they ask why I'll make it loud and make it as clear as possible.

AT&T is absolute garbage! They don't even prorate their monthly fee. My contract ended on the 15th and their billing cycle starts on the 12th. I fine with paying a small amount, but they wanted the full amount even after I told them I already went with Verizon. I told the rep to put a manager on because I was not going to pay it and go ahead and make a not to save their money and not even send it to a creditor cause I was not going to pay them either. FUCK AT&T and their crap service piss poor customer service and now dirty business practices. If another provider was able to pick up the iPhone AT&T would lose millions within a matter of months. They are by far the worst service provider ever. I had bellsouth for home service as well and sure enough as soon as AT&T took over their rate went up and their service went down. I hope the FCC crawls all the way up their asses for this mess!

What about the cellphone boosters that slip under a cell battery. Do those actually work? I remember seeing ads on tv a few years ago.

[citation][nom]anamaniac[/nom]Why is it I still haven't opened my drink even though I've had it right in front of me for half a hour?citation]
Because you forgot how? That was a little random.

This is why I refuse to deal with AT&T. I've had very little trouble with Verizon. Too bad people flock to the iphone.

I just can not believe the money people are willing to shell out for phone service these days. Well, as long as their are people willing to pay for this crap I guess these companies will make it. I don't even have a cell phone, don't want one, don't need one. Leave a message on my answering machine, I will get back to you when I am ready.

Someone is getting too big for their britches..........

Could AT&T be the next up and coming sprint of a year ago?

AT&T: "We found that our incompetence to give you a decent network that isn't plagued by dropped calls and poor signal strength has been met with very unhappy customers. So to fix this we decided to create a device for which the customer will pay a monthly fee that will allow them to get a better signal in their home and hopefully make up for our short comings."

I would almost believe that AT&T would do something like that. For just about a whole day at our highrise office there was barely any signal and ever since then my house has had much less reception in various areas. Before I could get 3G all over the house, no matter what. I doubt it could ever be proven but it's too much of a coincidence to read about a product like this just days after.....

And here I thought, when reading the title, that AT&T was going to pay us to install micro-towers for them, so that they can have better coverage. That might have even worked...

They should provide this 3g booster to boost signals of anyone within 5000 sq. ft. and then absorb the costs, so they can truthfully boast the worlds largest 3g network. This way if everyone has one of these devices, there will be a much better chance of eliminating dead spots.

I pay a monthly fee on my plan, if you fail to provide the service then I shouldn't have to pay my fee.

Not sure how it works in the USA, but in Canada I'm fairly sure if your cell phone company is unable to provide a working signal where you live the terms of the contract you signed do not apply. Meaning you can leave your current provider for another without incurring the penalties for cutting out early. (You'll still have to pay for the service up to the point where you cancelled your contract though) They, of course, won't tell you this willingly.

... ya know, like selling solar energy surpluss back to the grid...

"Now get up to five bars in your home!" On the packaging...soooo does that mean that my 0 bars still stays 0 because it's "up to five?" Very sketchy statement there.

Hmm. Looks like I will get this thing for free!

i guess i'm the lone TG reader with good ATT service... down on the south Texas border and 3G service is in full effect all through the Rio Grande Valley down here... i can even get a signal half a mile off shore at night... the signal seems fine too in San Antonio (south and west sides) and in the College Station area... and that's because i use a 2 year old samsung blackjack that seems to have a track record of having a crappy transciever in it... oh well... guess we're just lucky down here...

Noticed that this thing piggy-backs on your home internet connection of course the ISP, like Comcast, Verizon, SpeakEasy, etc; would be thrilled to find out that they get to take up the slack for AT&T on the bandwidth side.

So not only does the network obviously have issues, they charge to get better cell coverage and put the bandwidth onto another ISP ...

Yikes

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Honestly, none of you quite have a grasp on reality. No cell network is perfect nor will any ever be. I live in a valley where no cell provider offers good service. I will happily shell $150 for reception at home. And in case you haven't kept up with this, the service is free unless you want to pay $20/month for unlimited calls through the device. This is a much better option than Verizon ($250 for the device) or the monthly fees required by the others.

First for everyone who hates cellular networks, lets put this into perspective: The new fancy technology that requires data such as the iPhone and what not, require high tech radio waves, also known as high frequency. While you can get SOME data over a lower frequency, the saturation rate is higher and the through put is lower. That said, most carriers have opted to use high AND low frequencies. But due to over regulation the lower bands are not available in all areas, thus coverage suffers. For those on Verizon, you get excellent voice coverage in more areas but data services drop off. AT&T uses higher frequencies in most areas thus the call drop rate is higher because higher frequencies dont penetrate objects as well, especially at a distance.
Also to play devils advocate for ALL cellular companies: We can NOT have our cake and eat it too. If you want better coverage write your local municipalities, counties and states to loosen up the regulations on cell towers. Democracy is great, and seemingly (ESPECIALLY IN CALIFORNIA) we do not want to see cell towers cause they are ugly. well, so is the quality of service. By regulating the piss out of them it costs tons to get a tower in, and in rural areas its not even worth it most of the time.
To move on to more technical details, the device is basically a small 30DMB transmiter that operates as a micro cell tower. This differs greatly from a repeater as there is 0 loss in the amplifier nor is there any SNR loss. This is why a single device at low power with no decent transmitting antenna can do 5000 sq ft. A repeater for those who have not used them are better than nothing but will some times notice dropping calls even with 3 bars or so, and quality will be low, and data speed slow.
This is not the case with this technology, as it is producing a new signal. (Always better)
The way it seems to function from what I can gather by screwing with one, is that it connects over the internet to a central server, and will create a single voice trunk of 4 lines. Its not technically voip as this is actually tiering to an ATT switch and handing off 4 lines from their cellular network (much more complicated than that, but you get the idea) This is why its able to roam between towers seamlessly because it is no different than any other cell tower. As to the cost of the unit, I believe it could go down some, but it is made by cisco and they tend to over price their stuff. 150 to me is reasonable, as you will not find ANY repeater capable of the same coverage area for that price.
Another note, you can pick this device up and take it with you. It works any where. I got one from my Cousin who lives in the Charlotte area, did the activation with his info and its working in the foothills of northern california with no issues. It does use GPS for the 911 aspect so I dont know if they'll release a patch to stop it at some point, but right now its fine. I also have no 3g coverage up here at all and marginal cell coverage in general at my house, but do have a 6mbit DSL. He has both DSL / phone at his place so it was just the 150 for him. Also for those with huge houses who already have a repeater on a "Long Shot" reach, get one of these and use the repeater off it. The signal into the repeater i perfect, thus is amplified much better than with only 4 - 8 DBM in. I use a wilson 65DMB for my office building on SUPER long shot that didnt work very well, tried this momentarily there and all of a sudden the DMB in went from 5 to 38 and the SNR was marvelous. Hopefully they'll make a commercial version of this.
One last word on people bitching about the cell network: Read a book on how this technology works, then gripe. While I understand that RF concepts and what not are beyond most people, you still all look ignorant to me when complaining, as if there is ANY carrier that doesnt suffer the same plight unless they are small po-dunk OLD school cell networks that cant even do 1x data properly.
My two cents (or perhaps a buck 50)

The other great thing is people like me who live in rural areas where if your outside you can get a signal decent enough to make a quick call or send texts from a window sill. But we have no broadband where I live only sat internet. Which I would thing a large number of people in my situation would have.

All I can say is F**K YOU AT&T why do I have to pay even more money for my iPhone to make it actually work at home let alone actually work in a big city with endless AT&T towers. You steal enough peoples money AT&T use some to actually put up more towers and stop making us pay for your downfalls to help fix your bad biz decisions.

Funny thing is if I had any other AT&T phone at my house you have full 3g bars inside!! While me with the jesus phone struggles to get 3 bars of edge outdoors in the open 3 miles from a clear site 3g tower!!! Next pay check I am actually just going to pay my early term fee and be done with AT&T for every service they offer. I will never become one of their customers again for any service.

OH and lastly F**K YOU ATT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I'm one of the few that gets a good 3g signal from ATT, too bad that I have to be 17 miles from my house in order to get it. Here in East Tennessee you have to live in town (not all towns) in order to get high speed internet by cable or landline, but look on the bright side, I will probably be dead before ATT or the other phone companies decide to look into the problem. The only solution for some of us is to buy a satellite system pushed by these companies,(at a little under $1500.00 a year but I dont have an extra arm or leg to give them. I guarantee they'll get their bonuses from the Federal grant money they recieved to fix this problem but, the problem will still be there years from now with only excuses for answers. I feel sorry for you folks with Iphone signal problems but try to imagine "no cell signal at all" or "no low cost high speed internet". Maybe one day someone will come up with a good low cost solution and we can all kiss ATT and these other ripoff artists good-bye. I know I certainly will!!!!

I like a lot of others, live 6 months of the year here in Florida in an upscale development, but alas no signal strenth from at&t, I have to go outdoors to use my phone and see if there are any messages, You would not think a big city like Lakeland Florida would be a problem for AT&T but I guess they just don't care, I have contacted them on many ocassions and always get the same response "probably read from a line card" we don't have any plans for improving signal quality in your area in the near future....otherwise go away.....Micro towers and femcells may be grate but unless they are free for trouble spots I will switch carriers first, we have been with at&t for about six years and no contract so we are free to do what we wish.....By AT&T...no so nice knowing you..............