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AT&T 3G MicroCell – AT&T’s femtocell with 3G data coming soon!

By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 3:51 PM

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 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 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’s $249 Network Extender).

[Via: WMExperts]

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

  • LukeWarm

    They are definitely charging for unlimited

  • Pamela

    still waiting for this, when is it coming?

  • Tyler Pomerhn

    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.