AT&T 3G MicroCell – AT&T’s femtocell with 3G data coming soon!
By Will Park on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 3:51 PM PST In AT&T, Accessories, Announcements, Devices
Shouldn't a MICROcell be several orders of magnitude bigger than a FEMTOcell?
This new year is fast becoming the break-out year for signal-boosting femtocell solutions. Both Sprint (NYSE: S) and Verizon are now fully on-board the femtocell bandwagon, and the newly demoted No. 2 US carrier has announced that it will be following suit in short order. AT&T (NYSE: T) has gone official with their AT&T 3G MicroCell offering on their dedicated MicroCell website (which has since been taken offline), and it’s shaping up to be the more desirable femtocell solution on market.
The somewhat confusingly-named AT&T 3G MicroCell, despite its namesake, is actually a femtocell that connects your 3G-enabled AT&T mobile phone to AT&T’s network through your home’s high-speed internet connection. The AT&T 3G MicroCell blankets your home or office with 5,000 sq. ft. of 3G wireless goodness. The AT&T 3G MicroCell routes all communications through a high-speed wireline internet connection (DSL, Cable) and works with up to four mobile phones simultaneously. Better yet, AT&T’s femtocell supports 3G data, unlike Sprint’s Airave femtocell that limits network communications to the 2G variety.
AT&T is offering free, unlimited nation-wide calling when using the MicroCell. Unfortunately, we aren’t told if the MicroCell will require a monthly service fee (like Sprint’s $4.99/month in addition to the $99 Airave purchase) or if it will be offered fee-free but at a higher initial purchase price (like Verizon (NYSE: VZ)’s $249 Network Extender).
[Via: WMExperts]
They are definitely charging for unlimited
still waiting for this, when is it coming?
Just tried it. Works great, so long as no 2G/GPRS/GSM phone attempts to enter the microcell’s range. This thing absolutely kills my wife’s Blackberry signal and stops her from calling out. I think this is a MAJOR FLAW – I understand only “repeating” 3G signal, but 2G/GPRS/GSM phones should be unaffected. I shudder to think of these installed in apartment complexes; anyone with an apartment remotely close to someone with one of these will lose all capability of calling out. Even if my wife and I both had 3G phones, guests/visitors would lose their signal!
BUYER BEWARE.