AT&T's 3G MicroCell does unlimited calling, but it ain't cheap
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 20th 2009 6:20PM
posted Sep 20th 2009 6:20PM
- Sprint's Airave runs $4.99 a month, but they'll give it to you for free if the alternative canceling your service. Unlimited use is $10 a month.
- Verizon charges nothing once you buy the unit, though there's no unlimited calling option available.
- T-Mobile offers unlimited calling through its WiFi-based HotSpot@Home service for $9.99 a month.
- AT&T's going to charge $19.99 a month for unlimited use unless you've got internet or landline (ironic) service with them, in which case you'll pay $9.99. If you've got both internet and landline accounts, it's free.
[Thanks, anonymous tipster]
Scumbags
I have AT&T and love it!!! Maybe it's because they offer the best cell phone in the world. Guess what? You don't like the pricing move on. Smarts hierarchy (per wikipedia): Top Telecom CEO -> Turd -> Blog reader -> Blog writer -> Blog comment poster.
sti...low rank for you, i hate att just as much as the next guy. they're the ultimate douchey service w/ their dropped calls, and crappy customer service, and all around price gouging strategies. but to say that they have the slowest 3G network. you're plain making stuff up
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/26/engadget-labs-the-best-mobile-broadband-carrier-in-america/
do you're research before spewing garbage
@ Simbadogg
If you live in New York you'll understand. I have an iPhone 3gs and love it but At&t sucks!! SLOW 3g and dropped calls left and right.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2009/07/22/the-nations-fastest-3g-network/
It's about time that Congress and the FCC puts these wireless carriers in their place. They need to be knocked down a few notches. Hopefully with the announcement on Monday about net neutrality they will begin to realize that the need to start thinking about the customer and stop thinking they can dictate to the consumer.
BOO on AT&T
Eff Sprint
Down with Verzion
and Who Cares about Tmobile..
on behalf of the rest of earth, we salute our American tech brothers and sisters who suffer the outrage that is AT&T. I used to think that Telstra were dogs and while that may be true at least they have a real high performance network to pretend to justify their scumbag pricing.
Total scumbags. AT&T doesn't offer local or DSL service in my area, so then I'm forced to pay them $20 a month for this? AT&T can suck it.
I have an iPhone and AT&T. They do have spotty coverage, my phone barely functions inside buildings. This would be a great tool, but there is no way I am paying out ANOTHER f#@$ing $10 per month. If you paid up nickel and dime they want, you'd have a $200+ cell phone bill. Cell phone bill? $2,000 per year or more for phone service. This is getting ridiculous.
I cannot imagine AT&T EVER offering @Home service as good as T-Mobile.
I live for the day iPhone is available on more carriers or my contract runs out and I get a 128GB iPod Touch (I know they don't have it yet, but they will someday) with GPS etc....
I just feel the need to point out that David Johnson, by simultaneously posting that stupidity chart and commenting on a blog, has called himself stupider than a turd.
More FAIL in more places.
Screw you AT&T! I was planning on dropping my landline, but I need a mircocell(I have service, but its iffy)...I was set, for 9.99 I could deal with it. But 19.99? I mean, at that point I'm not saying much from my landline(something like 12 dollars)
If the hardware is free, I might still jump in....its still saving cash after all!
Actually, the image posted by Engadget says that there is no charge for the 3G MicroCell service. You can opt for a $20/month plan for Unlimited calling from the MicroCell if you want, but that's optional. So the MicroCell service is free if you want to just use your practically limitless pool of roll-over minutes.
I'm sure the box will be free to loyal customers or ones that bitch loudly, so it looks like you're probably in for a free box.
Yea, how dare I get upset at the idea AT&T will charge me 20 bucks a month for covering their lacking network. I pay around 200 a month, the idea that they should charge me 20, while Sprint gives it for 10 is just silly.
I actually like AT&T's relationship with me, but that doesn't mean I won't demands good services in the future(and 20 for unlimted is NOT good service)
Am I the only one who thinks that it is wrong to charge extra for using MY internet connection and MY electricity to power the device? Unlimited should be free, period... I am supplementing their service with my own.
Good thing I have options.
$20/month seriously isn't that much money...
Shit adds up.
Are you kidding me?! 20 bucks a month for something you would only use because the service at your house sucks...
It's not just robbery it's "bring out the gimp" action on top of robbery.
$480 over the life of your two year contract. Insanity at its best.
If you have a UMA mobile handset, T-Mobile lets you make unlimited free calls over your already-established wireless network, as long as you're already paying for a mobile plan with them.
Not true -- you continue to use minutes from your bucket unless you pay $9.99 for unlimited HotSpot calling.
Allow me to correct that. You can use your own wireless network with a UMA phone for free coverage if you have reception issues (using your included plan minutes), but you must purchase the $9.99 plan if you want truly unlimited minutes that don't touch your plan. The T-Mobile customers that got the $49.99 unlimited plan got the best deal, especially those with UMA phones in so-so coverage areas.
I thought rape was illegal...
Only when done by individuals. When done by money hungry corporations it's actually encouraged.
Why do we not have this feature in Canada?
Because from what I can tell, Canada's telecommunications industry is able to rape its consumers with an impunity surpassing even that of the United States!
True. As much as I love Canada, Bell and Rogers alone can make me wish I was American. That, and Zune Pass.
@rioRyan
because you're Camadian.
Is "Rogers" pronounced Ro-jay like French-Canadian like or is pronounced like the plural of the name Roger?
just curious....
Wow, just wow. If they succeed with this, I'll know the average American consumer has learned diddly from the past year. AT&T, I hope your blue wackjob deathstar crashes into an ocean of pain.
I have an Unimited Loyalty plan from T-Mobile, 2 lines, UL messages and UL $4.99 T-Zones which works on both my iPhone and BB 8900, I switch on UMA on the Blackberry at no additional charge and my monthly bill is ~$115. If they offered even the UL calling alone for close to that price for 2 lines and kept the high current data prices I'm pretty sure there would be a juggling of the carrier ranks.
The phone companies are dead, they just don't know it yet. All manner of VOIP providers are coming for them like a giant pack of wolves taking down a grizzled old elk.
Say it with me now: national wireless broadband utility companies. Regulated monopolies offering 20 MBPS over the air. Goodbye, scumbag phone companies. The internets are coming for you, and we're gonna have an awesome dance party on your graves.
The problem with that is that VOIP requires internet access which for many people = DSL from the phone company. For many, if not most, people it comes down to the lesser of two evils, the phone company or the cable company. Neither of which are known to be the most customer friendly.
Honestly, with their roll over plans, I can't see how anyone could ever go over their minutes. My family plan as thousands of banked rollover minutes that we never use. I just want the MicroCell, so I can get good coverage in my whole house. I already have more minutes than I can use, so I will be getting the device, but not the plan.
Dude, I don't think you get it. The $19.99 that this article is talking about is for unlimited use of the MicroCell, not unlimited cell phone minutes. The 20 bones is on top of your regular plan.
No, Greg, you don't get it. He understands that the $20/month is only for unlimited use of the microcell. What he is saying is that with the store of rollover minutes he has already and the fact he never goes over, he essentially has unlimited use of the microcell because even if it deducts from his minutes, he will never go over.
What does the box cost upfront? That just adds to the cost. While ATT is higher than the rest, it would replace a $55/month landline in my house.
Yeah, this is what I'm wondering. If the box cost is reasonable, I'll probably still spring for it and just use my existing minutes. It's better than having a crappy signal at home. If it's just an upfront cost, I can even share the cost with my neighbors (who also complain about the crappy at&t signal). OTOH, I hope they don't charge a monthly fee just to get the box...
Get Ooma for your landline. Cost you $175 and have free landline and top quality calls for as long as they stay in business. In your scenario it would pay itself off in less than 4 months. I'd rather donate my money to Ooma before I would allow AT&T to extracted a dime out of me for a bill.
Well that goes above the $0 a month I was willing to pay. Sorry AT&T I am not paying you to improve your coverage.
"How can AT&T get away this kind of anti-customer nonsense?", you ask. Just take a little jaunt outside the city limits of a major metro area and you quickly make a despressing discovery: AT&T *owns* rural America. Beyond the crowded, customer-rich confines of the urban sprawl you are left with VERY few alternatives. AT&T has clevery covered 99% of all the major highways in the USA, and they are quite ofen the only carrier to cover large swaths of lightly populated regions. Their making a KILLING like this, and the brain-dead execs at Sprint, etc. either have no clue or simply can't compete. I currently I have no options for internet where I live except AT&T, and I will be DAMNED if I pay those crooks $85/month for a lousy 5gb (seroiusly!) of data each month, esp. over such a slow and unreliable network. So I get online maybe two hrs per week at a friend's house. HE lives 20 min. away in town, where he has about 8000 options for internet. I'm serious, the land lines are so decrepit where I live that modems no longer work. Don't even mention satellite, its beyond a joke. Its GSM or nothing. Did I mention I have an interstate virtually in my back yard?? If not for that even AT&T probably woudn't be available. I'm really hoping the broadband stimulus scheme has some kind of postiive impact, because about 25% of the country is in the same boat as myself.
are you saying that you don't have internet at your house??
how do you live..??
two hours a week and you spend it posting comments on engadget?
Huh? Why don't you just get an EV-DO modem and use Verizon? I just used it in a backwoods country bar in the middle of Michigan's upper peninsula and the guy I was traveling with who had AT&T hadn't even had phone service for 45 minutes in the truck, much less high-speed data. I travel a lot, and this is almost always the case. Unless you live in one of the handful of areas in the country where AT&T works and Verizon doesn't, as opposed to the millions of square miles in urban areas where Verizon works and AT&T does not, this seems like a viable option.
Yes, it's only 5GB per month for $59, but that seems better than only getting on the Internet for 2 hours a week, or not having Internet access at all.
At any rate, this would not get you a microcell. But with Verizon, you likely won't need it :)
The $20 Unlimited calling feature is an option and not required. If you don't want the Unlimited calling feature, you just use your existing AT&T cell rate plan minutes but get some great coverage.
This is where the new A-list comes into play.
Joe
wow. Why not just get a VOIP phone instead, and use call forwarding?
Epic failure on the price. I need this in a bad way because my ATT service at my house blows. And yet, 20 a month is crazy talk.
That really sucks. I just moved to Chicago where, according to AT&T, the coverage is excellent. In real-world use, it sucks. I get no service whatsoever anywhere in my apartment, making difficult to send text messages, much less make/receive calls. I was looking forward to getting one of these once they were released, but there is no way I'm going to pay them $20/month on top of the voice and data plans I'm already locked into. I may need to look into getting out of my contract, this is pretty ridiculous.
Give me a break. Should be no more then $10 a month with free hardware.
Well, looks like the markets will decide on this one. If nobody buys in to it, ATT obviously chose the wrong price.
woohoo, free for me...
Kiss my ass AT&T. You want to charge me $20 bucks a month to use my network to fix your crappy coverage? America, What a Country!
how is this different from what tmobile and sprint do?
ATT is charging $20/month, the others aren't.
Sounds different to me.
@Dave sv
Did you even read the post? It's 2 to 4x more expensive and you still have no unlimited option- not to mention Att's plans are already way more expensive that Sprint or T-Mobile to begin with.
If you don't see the difference I'd hate to see what you paid the dealer for your car.
You can't tell me there's not someone visiting this page right now that doesn't actually have all the information in front of them...
How much is the box?
How much is the activation fee, if there is one?
Is Joe Smith accurate in that unlimited calling is $20.00 unlimited, while the box can be used without it and just eats up your minutes?
Would it be possible to relocate the box here within the U.S. to rural Arkansas where there is no AT&T service where VZN rules the roost?
Yet another +1 on how much AT&T sux.
Not like I need any more convincing...
I already have AT&T DSL and landline phone service but I canceled my mobile phone service last year. Bummer.
Now cancel your DSL and landline and you will be cleansed.
@DR:
I've had both services for years and I am very happy with them. The DSL service has never given me problems. I was pretty happy with the mobile phone service, too, but it got too expensive.
Only internet douche bags use the word fail as a one or two word sentence.
insult fail
This sucks. I live in a house with both AT&T landline and internet, but it's not my bill. If this is an option, though, does that mean that you can buy the unit and not pay a monthly fee?
Ya' know I've tried and tried to figure out how AT&T has rationalized this decision. For the life of me I just can't do it. Its the most expensive option .... and from what is supposedly the biggest network. I can only conclude that 1) they're greedy SOBs; and 2) they're stupid
Ok, so i'm not just providing the guy next door better service but I'm also paying for him to have better service as well. I mean really why doesn't AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile or who ever just wise up and give these things away. Think of how it would allow them to blanket areas they normally couldn't reach. It would provide service to any home, any office, any place that wanted there blasted cell service. Heck with people who have a set up they should be getting a discount on service with how much bandwidth and load they are saving the phone company who puts this out.
This is just another way to fleece consumers and it makes me sick.
AT&T is just a scumbag F the customer company. They could care less about customer service or appreciation in any way shape or form. I hope the FCC destroys these pricks. They deserve everything they get. I am stuck with them because my company uses them and their service in AZ is pathetic at best. My wife and daughter would be on AT&T if we could get coverage at home just for ease of use and mobile-mobile calling. Instead these morons are too stupid to figure out that MicroCells are about NOT losing a customer. Way to go AT&T. Hope your greed is worth it. Go F urselfs.
That price blows, you have to supply your own bandwith plus power and they still want you to pony up $19.99? That's crazy, I wonder what their scumbag CEO is smoking these days.
the new slogan could be
" Tired of your ATT service not working like its supposed to in your area? Now, buy Microcell by ATT for an extra $20.00 a month, and you can cover our dead areas at an extra cost! "
I'm getting really tired of my iPhone, especially now that Apple has broken Exchange support, and the AT&T service is so spotty where I live in Lexington, KY. When I'm downtown my Edge GSM internet slows to a crawl and half of my calls don't go through on the first attempt. Also, I work in a basement about 20 feet underground. My contract is up in November, and I was seriously considering Sprint for their Pre and AIRAVE service. If AT&T will give me, a loyal customer for almost 10 years, this box for free and if it's true that there's no monthly fee to use it if you do not want the $20/month unlimited calling plan for it, then I might weather out this iPhone and hope for a webOS device on AT&T soon.
Also, whoever allows me to use one of these femtocells without a GPS lock, because I work in a basement, will basically get me as a customer.
Do you have wi-fi down there? T-Mobile doesn't require a GPS lock to use UMA, and it's free to use if you don't need the unlimited add-on.
Hey MBN, thanks for the suggestion. I'm aware of T-Mobile's UMA phones. Unfortunately, I use my iPhone as my only personal computer when I'm at home and I'd love to keep it that way. I have a desktop PC at work, but don't want to bother with such a large device when all I do is check email and read the news while at home. My point is that I love having a "full" featured browser (sans Flash, which is irrelavent) in my phone. Currently, TMobile does not offer any phones of which I am aware that have such a browser, with Exchange email support, and UMA. If I'm wrong, please let me know. I'd be happy to reconsider TMobile.
well lucky me, i have at&t dsl internet and a landline (for my mom who doesnt even know what the internet is)..... i also have the iphone and it gets signal everywhere in town, save my house. i'll be getting this. although I can't help but wonder; will this slow down my internet? i have the "fastest" internet att offers. ( i think 8mbps)
I've had a contract with AT&T (and Cingular) for over 6 years. Their coverage in my region is horrible (I live in mid-coast Maine) despite the fact that every other bus in the city runs with an orange-and-white livery that says 'Maine, we've got you covered. AT&T'. I could not place calls from anywhere in my house and I had to go outside to get anything at all. just to be clear, I am not in a rural area (yes, there are non-rural areas in Maine. yes, we have running water too). About a month ago my iPhone plan expired and I immediately switched to Sprint. Boy, what a difference! Immediate availability of the network upon booting my Palm Pre as opposed to 3 to 5 minutes of searching, immediate jump onto roaming network as soon as the native signal is lost and...better coverage! I was really, really surprised that Sprint can be this good. Oh, and I pay almost 20 bucks a month less for my -plan now. So Screw your phemtocell, AT&T - with Sprint I don't need one.
wow... so i guess this solidifies that at&t upper management really has no clue. at&t really has no competitive edge except the iphone. funny how crappy the company has turned given the deep pockets could have made them the best... but the ceo that brought at&t back together was hand picked to run GM... i guess in a few years they will have crappier cars than kia. at&t has a heritage of effing things up.
The greatest thing about this country is how anyone can become rich. We shareholders of AT&T and countless other companies love that we control the customer experience. Sometimes good mostly bad for the customer but great for the shareholder. If companies were compassionate and truly cared about customers and customer service they would run off every shareholder out there. The job of every company is to kiss "our" shareholders butts on a daily basis. A company will always bend over backwards for us. Customers are the lowest variable on the totem pole. The price is way to low if your phone is so important, you would be willing to pay 50 to 100 bucks for this service. Once the shareholders get wind of this crazy cheap ploy, we will make sure to force AT&T's hand to push prices higher and higher until we can suck every single cent from your pockets. We are not here to make you happy we are here to make ourselves RICH.
I can understand giving customers discounts if they use AT&T services at home, but what about areas where people don't even have the option of that. I can't get any services from AT&T like Cable or DSL service since they are not provided here. Other Companies are controlling those areas here. People who can't get non wireless AT&T services should get an automatic discount. :)
Whoa! Talk about price gouging:
-Smartphone Internet $30
-Messaging $20 ($30 on my FamilyTalk)
-Voice $70 for 700 min
-Increasing AT&T coverage for my neighbors and using the Internet BANDWIDTH I PAY FOR in the process, $20
On top of AT&T's pushy and dishonest sales reps, their spotty and slow coverage, their annoying ads, crapware-laden phones, and extreme monthly prices, I think very few people would consider getting this POS.
You guys realize you don't have to pay the $20...Right?
No people don't realize that but that's because they are idiots and find that being uninformed and complaining for no reason is easy and the cool thing to do.
I wonder if the people complaining that their service doesn't work at their house if they did have good service would their usage be such that they would need the unlimited minute plan? If so how did they intend to get unlimited minutes? Paying the overages or upping their rate plan?
If you have plenty of minutes now with your current rate plan then buy the devices and not pay anything extra!
If you had service at our house and would use a ton of minutes then paying an extra $20 to have service and unlimited calls isn't bad (it's not as cheap as other carriers but I doubt peoples calling habits would be that different if they suddenly got service at home).
the comment immediately below this is evidence that they indeed do not.
Reading comprehension FTW.
So... let me get this straight... because THEIR reception near my home is weak, they want ME to pay THEM 20 friggin dollars a month to make it better? Uh... kiss my ass...
How about THEY pay me $20 a month to put a friggin mini cell tower in my home...
Jackasses... get a friggin LIFE!
These blog comments are BS. Think about the psychology of it....does anyone post for the positive for any of these things. No one is going to read a post and think "hey thats cool, i'm going to post how happy i am"...NO. Every post is some bitchy winer who already has an axe to grind. If this post would have said AT&T to give away microcells plus 100 dollars for every vowel in your name this board would have been loaded with people unfortunate enought to only have one vowel in their name and how AT&T conspired against them. If you are unhappy....move on!! And worse yet if you have moved on..LET IT GO! Maybe it's my fault for subjecting myself to this tripe but I felt I had to share my displeasure...apprently like everyone else.
Hey, that's cool, I'm going to post how happy I am that you made such a stupid post, cause I needed a laugh today.
Thanks for helping spread the love!!
So if I want my wireless service to work I have to also have landline and internet service from the crummy company who couldn't make it work in the first place?
I thought I had you swayed to happy land and then you go and do this??? E tu Brute!?!?!?
Wait until you see what they will charge us for iPhone tethering ;)
Pretty Please.
Apologies on the auto fill. Anyway, I completely agree, We are filling their cell network with our service and we have to pay for the equipment and/or add on fees. I really hope Apple doesn't sign an extension to the exclusivity. Let's go competition.
Why is this such a big deal?
You will be able to buy the device outright with no monthly charge (unlike Sprint who charges $5 per month). If you don't want unlimited calling, fine, don't pay the extra charge per month. The device is going to cost $150 according to all the AT&T stores in Charlotte, and there will be some sort of $100 rebate for adding the unlimited option.
It's also a great deal for people like me who have DSL and a home phone, and get unlimited calling for free. I might drop my landline and save $10 per month, which is $120 per year.
If you don't want the unlimited calling, then fine, AT&T isn't shoving it down your throat.
I can buy this device outright and then all I have to do is also pay the electric bill and internet charges for a device to provide the coverage at my house that I'm already paying AT&T for?
This deal keeps getting better and better.
Dude seriously.....waaah..'tear' I'm sure this thing is going to drive your electric bill through the roof. It will also surely add charges to your internet bill as well. I wonder if Verizon has service in your house?? Then you wouldn't even have to worry about it!
Well, if the electric and internet charges are relatively minor, then I guess AT&T can reimburse me for them then, right? Given that I'm paying them $100/month, they shouldn't have any issues paying me back less than $100/year for providing their coverage for them, right?
Just get a smart phone with skype or any other SIP provider and use your cell on your own home network as much as you want.
This seems ok to me. I am not expecting free minutes. I just want the stuff I have to work at home.
It doesn't sound that bad to me at all actually.
This industry is every bit as corrupt and out of touch as the recording industry.
hmm.... a little narrow minded to assume its only to be used in areas that dont get coverage.
id use it at my house (where i get excellent coverage) and drop my business plan from 3500 minutes to 1500 minutes. id save a hell of a lot more than $20.
sorry for not jumping on the hate bandwagon.
This was going to be my excuse for getting the iPhone, because AT&T's service is so bad that everyone I know that comes over to my apartment doesn't get reception. It's not like I live in the boonies either...I live in the middle of f'ing San Francisco.
Yeah, AT&T, I'm really going to pay $100 a month with the only net benefit being zomg unlimited internet everywhere.
free for me also. but i got 7.2 mpbs love here Thank you AT&T :D
Well, the good news is that you can share your MicroCell with up to 10 of your friends and you don't have to pay the $20 for the Unlimited MicroCell phone plan and they dont' use your minutes. The MicroCell uses the individual AT&T cell phone number for individual billing out of the existing rate plan bucket of minutes.
For the other cry babies, you don't have to have anything but an AT&T post paid cell phone plan. You don't need AT&T Internet or landline service. AT&T is just providing a discount on the choice of the Unlimited MicroCell rate plan if you have another AT&T service.
Joe