AT&T's 3G MicroCell gets unboxed, looks sufficiently cute
By Darren Murph 
posted Sep 21st 2009 6:03PM
posted Sep 21st 2009 6:03PM
[Thanks, Aaron]
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Sufficiently cute? It's very cute! Reminds me of Mirrors Edge... Awesome game.
Nice stuff. Hopefully less people will complain about their connection in villages/country sides;)
Ok. To all you ATT people reading this, bring this baby home to your former headquarters city, good ole San Antonio!
That's the battery level. The signal strength is over there on the left!
Looks like it belongs in the baby room.
I wonder if it has monitoring capability - plug in a headset/something and "listen in" on the voice/data passing through.
Speaking of plugging things in - can you plug in a regular landline-style handset and assign a "cell" number to that handset? I have a "basestation" in the kitchen with multiple remote handsets throughout the house - usable still or dead EOL electronics?
no and no to your questions Freakin Ijit
It fits right in with the computers from Portal.
Does anyone know: if you buy one of these in Charlotte, NC will it still work in other cities? Or does it only work in Charlotte?
Also, has there been any word on pricing for the unit itself?
Ok, I guess you can't click on the tag for this topic and read the other topics?
Because all that was already discussed!
No, it won't work anywhere else right now.
According to info out there so far it has GPS to prevent it from working outside the U.S. So it should probably work anywhere in the country.
However, you would certainly need your account billing address to be located in the test market in order to purchase this.
It's like the AIRAVE when it was first in two test markets.
People bought the device in the test market.
They conned a Sprint rep to adding the AIRAVE to their non-test-market account.
They got the AIRAVE to boot up fully.
They got an error and it wouldn't fully initialize. Sprint claimed it as an "FCC error" - namely, they were operating it outside the testing area.
AT&T will require you to have the M-cell in an AT&T licensed spectrum area - so don't expect to bring this anywhere not serviced by AT&T any time soon... unless you want to shell out for GPS emulation.
@Dakota unless you hack the GPS, which should be relatively simple.
@tnkgrl
Well, that sounds plausible to feed the unit a GPS signal that makes it THINK it's in America...
... of course, I doubt you could very simply rip out the pre-existing GPS unit and then pop in your own GPS data source directly to the system.
For the easy route? A multi-thousand-dollar simulator that connects to the GPS antenna port and feeds it coordinates.
The GPS thing sounds to me like it wouldn't work well. If you're putting it in somewhere without a 3G signal, like a basement in a large building, there's no way GPS would reach there.
From all of the other iPhone 3.1 stories about battery life, the battery life gauge shouldn't be shocking.
hahahahahahaha
Heh. Exactly why I actually haven't updated to 3.1. The low battery is actually due to playing around with some new Fetch settings last night for Gmail. I obviously won't be keeping them, and it's going back to Manual. :-)
Looking great, but hey, are we supposed to sponsor our carriers' lack of investment in good coverage? Even if I was just paying for the electricity, it's a cost that I've payed for with my monthly contract charges!
The only way to improve coverage is to build more towers, and do you really believe you wouldn't pay for that through increased fees?
Correct, I think that's the provider's problem. Paying around £40/month for a mobile phone contract is high enough and it is them who are trying to sell us the service.
In other words, what you are suggesting is you are sold a substandard service that you'll subsidise by buying a femto cell, which you'll power (paying for electricity) and possibly pay a subscription for as well. That's a joke! If anything you as the customer should be payed a fee (or offered a reduction from your bill) for providing local coverage.
It's exactly the same as building a mast, just on a smaller scale. The provider has to rent/buy the space and pay for the power.
how much coverage does this thing need?!
Next up, 30 posts about a new iPhone case..
Actually, this is really nice for someone like me who lives in an area where it's hard for cell providers to have reliable coverage. The biggest issue with my iPhone at home is that it drops to EDGE all the time and has a hard time keeping five bars when I'm not near a window - this would solve that.
I have no problem paying $150 for this and just using cell minutes (I don't make many calls, so I don't need unlimited). I understand the argument against paying for this when AT&T should just improve their coverage, but it's hard for me to make that argument where I live.
It should be even harder for you to make the argument on their behalf.
Instead of wasting more dollars towards the perpetuation of mediocrity, you should switch carriers instead.
I guess that makes too much sense though, so we should pay AT&T extra to make up for their lack of extra coverage instead...
@WindowsFTW - Read my comment again jackass. I said this is nice for someone like me since I live in an area where it's "hard for cell providers to have reliable coverage". I'm referring to all of them, not just AT&T. All of them (AT&T, T-Mo, VZW, Sprint) have ok voice coverage here, but I'd like more reliable 3G voice since I get a lot of dropped calls.
Am I the only who does not understand why anyone cares really that this thing is 3G? If you are at home with your microcell and you don't have service, ok, nice now you have service to make calls, though presumably you already had some wifi since you are supplying the internet that the microcell has to hook up to... right? I assume that I could not even make a skype call on this or watch my slingbox, correct?
@Adam
For my needs the fact that this seems ONLY to be 3G is a negative rather than a positive. I'd rather have straight edge.
I keep my iphone on edge at all times except when I use the web out of the home, (And always use wi-fi at home) So for me 3G is not a plus.
However the 3G capability of this unit would be a plus for people who want to leave their phone in 3G mode (so they never have to bother switching back and forth in settings), and whose homes are in a marginal 3G coverage area. Such marginal coverage has a lot of dropped calls when in left in 3G mode.
3G voice is much better than Edge voice quality. I don't care about data, since I have WiFi for that.
Also, I don't think they even make Microcells for 2G/Edge, so it's either this or zBoost type general cell signal boosters, which just don't work that well (at least for me).
I'm very excited for this little piece of hardware. I primarily live in a major city but I also have a house further North and my iPhone recieves absolutely no signal whatsoever. I honestly don't see the price of this thing being too unreasonable for what I would be getting out of it. I guess my only concern is I don't quite understand how the GPS comes into play. Is that specifically for just telling where you are and if AT&T needs to charge you for being out of the US or will like this thing de-activate if it isn't in one of AT&T's specified areas?
In any case, I'm glad something like this is coming out for AT&T.
It's just so AT&T can confirm you're using it where you're supposed to be.
We are told by AT&T that GPS is required so you won't use this in States where it is illegal (North Dakota, I think?). And, of course, outside the United States.
Another reason to get the location is so it can pick a frequency channel which will cause the least mount of interference with neighboring AT&T cell sites.
GPS is required. Think E911 and spectrum licensing issues.
So who here is smarter than I am and can spoof a GPS signal? I'm sure the encryption is a HIGHLY guarded national security secret... but it would still be nice to be able to use this overseas!!!
I'm not smarter than you, but you could buy a Spirent GSS4220 for about $30K USD to simulate any location you choose :) ( http://www.spirent.com/Solutions-Directory/~/media/Datasheets/Positioning/GSS4200.ashx ).
I'm guessing AT&T made some attempts to make this work in places where they approve. So maybe trying to activate this in New York isn't going to work? I would think AT&T's worst nightmare with this product is someone placing dozens of these on top of a building in downtown Manhatten.
If you lose power do you have to re-activate again? Because if I want this in my basement then there's no way it's getting a GPS signal.
@RAB setup or just bypass the GPS receiver and fake the NMEA serial data to simulate any location you want.
Very Cool!
So this is UMA for phones that don't support UMA?
Nope. This is your very own AT&T Cell Tower without the union labor.
But the net effect is the same: you are accessing the cell network through an internet connection.
The difference is UMA can be used any place that has WiFi access.
I know what you're trying to say, but no this is totally different than UMA. This simply emits a cellular signal and routes the information through the internet. UMA directly connects a phone to the internet and requires special hardware in the phone. Again, it is marketed in the same context as UMA (to extend coverage), but it is functionally totally different. Don't let market speak invade your mind.
James, that is exactly what I'm saying. It provides the benefits of UMA to phones that aren't capable of UMA.
Since UMA is here today and more and more phones are now capable of UMA, it seems like this mini-cell is obsolete before it's even out the door.
I am going to bet that AT&T is somehow endorsing Engadget to post stuff in their interest. I would not be surprised if Apple did the same.
You’re an idiot because either way paid or not this is significant gadget news schleprock.
I haven't had cell service here in Peoria Az for over a year since going with ATT.
In my community we have 1700 homes. You would think a tower or two would go up.
Oh wait I see an ATT helicopter dropping boxes.
I am in peoria, az as well... ATT is garbage.. Sprint or VZW is a much better choice.. I use a blackberry so im not stuck to ATT for the iphone like many people are. ATT has promised they were putting up a tower near lake pleasant pkwy and jomax for over 2 years..ATT is an over priced, low quality pos provider and would never give them a penny of my money again.
So we are paying AT&T to fix something that never should be broken and they act like they are doing us a favor.
I hope AT&T explodes
This should be free with contract.
I'll shell out the $150 as long as there is no monthly service cost. I have a second home that I get extremely poor cel phone reception in. All the carriers suck out there. I do have broadband so this will be great so that I don't have to get a land line there. Of course my preference would be to have a stronger community signal but that's not likely since my second home is in a very rural area. I can't really fault ATT for not wanting to invest in a tower that would only service a small number of people. Having an iPhone will full bars will be great!
ATT! Listen up. Sell these devices at cost and don't charge a fee. You'll do wonders for your subscriber retention. If you try to get greedy with these things to pump up revenues, I think you'll lose more people in the long run.
If AT&T was smart... they should put a MicroCell in each of their home routers used with their DSL service. Then they'd automatically have these little micro cells in homes all over the country.
This will be great for my mom to ditch her over priced land line that is from a monopolized small town phone company that won't allow Qwest or Comcast to provide phone service in her area and charges long distance to call the next town over. All cell carriers' coverage stops about 2 miles short of her house except ATT which has about 2 bars of EDGE in the yard and 1 bar in some windows of the house off and on. Basically just enough to push through SMS and standard voicemail notifications (not visual vmail on my iphone though). Now the only sticking point is what to do when the electricity goes out, she wouldn't have cell coverage and would have to rely on the land line still.
You get her lifeline service, e.g. just for emergencies, at the lowest possible cost. Make sure you have a simple phone that doesn't require a power brick and can operate off the power on the phone line alone. Even one of these in the house might be enough. I would never want to depend on 9-1-1 over cellphone coverage in an emergency. But she can probably get lifeline service for like $4 or $5 per month as a just-in-case backup.
"here's an idea, instead of adding more service capacity, we'll sell a product that only works in your house"
My house is the only place my phone doesn't work ...
I want/need one of these ASAP... ZERO service in my totally obscure Pac Heights San Francisco apartment!!
Cingular, raising the bar
FYI - my friend picked up one of these today. Being the geek that he is, he cracked it open to see what its 'innards' look like. A bunch of jumpers are clipped to the case, and come loose if you open it. Now, it no longer works. So, don't open it up if you actually want to use the thing.
Too funny, there goes $150.00
This is pretty much wifi router that charges 20 dollars extra. Seriously? Gizmodo did an article on why this POS should be FREE and suckers can't get around their no bar BS.
ATT and Apple pretty much have everyone on a leash, and this is their dog tag on you.
This has nothing to do with WIFI.
Ugh. I pay AT&T around $300/mo for wireless, internet and home phone service. You're ****ing telling me I have to pay $150 for this because they can't provide me decent cell service at my house. This is so frustrating.
Give it to me free if I'm already spending $3600/year with you.
So let me get this straight. I buy a $200 iPhone form AT&T (mine was actually $399 when I got it) and give them somewhere around $80 a month for service for two years. Turns out their coverage sucks and/or their system is simply overloaded. Now they want to sell me a $200 box with an additional monthly service charge that magically gives me a phone signal at my house at the expense of my on broadband that I'm paying out the nose for?
How does this not scream scam to everyone with half a brain?
Does this device not prove that they are not able to provide the service they are due to provide upon entering a contract with us consumers?
Didn't Sprint do this like 3 years ago? And yeah, it should be free if they can verify it's a dead spot. Way to go AT&T on queering more sales.
You don't actually expect them to be responsible for poor coverage AND capacity do you? Not on the chicken scratch they get from customers every month that pay the same as VZW customers! Instead they'll give you 3G by hooking into your own broadband at home. Amazing. AT&T = Raising the bar on your dime because we don't want to.
I think it's about time the Futuristic Looking gadgets started showing up in everyday consumers lives. Just think, the Jetson's Lifestyle is sorta upon us, sans jet car....
CANCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After suffering unreliable to non existent phone signal in my rural house I went on eBay and bought a mobile repeater - an AnyTone AT-600 which has a yagi aerial (point at nearest mast 5 miles away) and a mini aerial (position in house). I then discovered that half my issue was having 18" brick walls all through the house. 5 bars in 1 room 0 bars next door.
So I installed a splitter and another internal antenna - now I have 2-5 bars all over the house.
I can use GPRS but as others said when I'm at home my phones are on WiFi for data.
Of course it cost near £200 for the hardware, my time for the install and it's costing me 8W an hour for power it but there's no cost to pay 02 and I could also use Vodafone who use the same bands in the UK so I'm not tied to one provider. As there are no available 3G masts near me nor any plans to upgrade the ones there are I figure it's worth the cost (I work at home) YMMV.
I kind of want this, but it doesn't seem like a reliable replacement for a landline phone - now you've got multiple points of failure possible. Lose power and obviously your dead, but also just lose internet service over your DSL/whatever and you're dead. Also I figure there is a service they are providing to give you this and it could fail even when you've got internet service. I probably should just keep my landline and not pay them $150 for this box. If it were $50 or less I'd be in, though.
Just did a full review on the MicroCell I picked up yesterday.
http://jasonnash.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/review-of-the-att-3g-microcell/