AT&T 3G MicroCell unboxing and impressions
By Darren Murph 
posted September 28th 2009 1:19PM
posted September 28th 2009 1:19PM
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It's sort of tough to believe that Sprint's own femtocell hit the national scene over a year ago, and just as we were impressed with that Samsung-sourced device, we're equally impressed with this Cisco-built box. We've already heard reports that the unit simply works, and without getting all long-winded on you, the long and short of it is this: yeah, it really does work.
Upon unboxing the 3G MicroCell, we were immediately struck at just how large this thing is. It's nearly twice as big as our WLAN router, and it's shockingly white. In other words, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Of course, it provides a nice blanket of AT&T 3G for your phones, but there's really no hiding this thing. AT&T also recommends that you place it near a window and over a foot away from your wireless router, though an incredibly short Ethernet cable is included (go figure). Initial setup was a breeze; you simply head to AT&T's setup website, login to your AT&T account, punch in your device's serial number and then add or delete AT&T mobile numbers that can be used on the device. Got a friend that comes over often and likes to make calls? Adding him / her is no problem, and numbers can be added or deleted at any time after the initial setup, too.
Once the online portion is complete, you're instructed to plug the device into your router (or broadband modem) and power it up. From there, the manual states that a 90 minute initialization period is needed before you can actually use it. Thankfully, our setup only took a half hour, and immediately after it was ready, a text message was sent to our iPhone 3G notifying us that a) our phone was connected to the 3G MicroCell and b) we could now make calls / access 3G data over the device.
Once it's connected (which happens automatically), the only difference you'll notice when using your 3G handset is clearer calls and stronger 3G reception. Our web surfing and emailing was buttery smooth over 3G, and calls were as clear as ever. We huddled down in a corner that's notorious for killing our signal and made a few test calls, all of which maintained signal throughout and garnered praise from everyone on the other end. Of course, you'll still feel the pain if your ISP tends to drop from time to time, but as long as your internet connection remains strong, you should be good to go. Just so you know, we tested our calls on a basic, no frills cable internet connection that sees uploads capped at around 40Kbps. Oh, and we did test two simultaneous calls (up to four at once are supported), and both of 'em went over great.
All told, AT&T's 3G MicroCell works exactly as advertised, though we were slightly disturbed by how toasty the top got. We generally saw anywhere between 1 and 4 bars of 3G at our testing facility, and after the MicroCell installation, we never saw it dip beneath 5 bars of 3G. One huge benefit of the 3G MicroCell over Sprint's AIRAVE is data support; the latter still doesn't provide EV-DO data, meaning that you'll still be forced to struggle through emails and web surfing at home if your handset doesn't handle WiFi. With AT&T's solution, users can expect strong 3G downloads anywhere in their home, which may or may not be a deal-maker. So, is this thing worth the coin? If you're dying to have an iPhone 3G / 3GS (or any of AT&T's 3G handsets), and you get horrible coverage at home, sure. Yeah, you could bicker that users shouldn't be paying to patch holes in AT&T's coverage areas, but that's exactly what your monthly payments go to (in theory) anyway. For those out there who are hard-up for an iPhone 3G or 3GS, another $150 from the savings account probably won't stop them. Oh, and for those of you dreaming of taking this overseas for a bit of gratis international calling, fuhgetaboutit. As with Sprint's AIRAVE, the internal GPS chip has to certify that you're within US borders before it'll work. Lame, but impossible to avoid.
We dig that AT&T will let users buy the box and then keep using it sans any monthly fees (unless you opt for a $20 per month unlimited calling plan), and we're hoping that the pricing gets increasingly more attractive as new test markets are rolled out. You see, the 3G MicroCell was priced at $150 regardless of plan selections in Charlotte, but in Raleigh, AT&T is testing out something a little different. Customers can purchase the device for $150 straight-up, but if they choose a $20 monthly plan to get unlimited calling, they can look forward to a $100 mail-in rebate bringing the grand total to $50. Additionally, Raleigh-area AT&T DSL and U-verse users (new subscribers only, though) get an extra $50 rebate, bringing the net cost of the femtocell to $0.00. It's not perfect, but it's progress, and we could definitely envision these flying off shelves at a breakneck pace should the MSRP stoop below the magical $100 mark.
Update: AT&T pinged us to say that the $100 rebate for choosing the $20 / month unlimited calling option is in effect for both Charlotte and Raleigh, though the extra $50 rebate is for Raleigh-area users only. And no, you can't buy this in Charlotte or Raleigh and take it back to San Jose; right now, AT&T will only enable MicroCells to operate in its test markets.
God damn you, AT&T.
Seriously.
Or, you can just bounce on your contract because coverage isnt in your home.
Pathetic excuse for a company to prey on ignorant people.
How far can you go before you lose signal?
@Chas within 3 feet or around any corner of your house.
Why is anyone willing to spend more money to keep their service when they always have a choice of just switching carriers but keeping their numbers? Are people so stupidly loyal that they'd rather pay extra money just to make the service work?
I mean, the money you pay for the service is 100% reliable. can you say the same about your mobile phone? since everyone alive has to say 'no' to that question, then the reality is that we are all being ripped off. nobody should have any loyalty whatsoever to their mobile carrier.
I can't see any good use for this product anywhere except where there is NO service otherwise.
@dan
it's not about loyalty to att. it's about people wanting to have an iphone, or a bold or whatever, and being stuck on att.
if phones were 100% interchangeable between carriers, then most people would probably switch carriers over annoying service, but alas...
ATT sucks, but ... if you work in creepy steel building on 120th floor, then the signal might be weak no matter what provider you have and this MicroCell can significantly improve it. The same applies to cabin on Tahoe in the middle on the mountain. It's great device, it just should not cost $150, but $19.99
I think people have failed to see the beauty of this thing: Being able to continue using your AT&T phones (at least in the hotel/apartment) when you go overseas for vacation or work...
@Harkonian
In the article they state that there's a GPS chip in the unit so you cannot do what you describe.
@Dan
You're about half right i'd guess. I'm sure there's some "loyalty" to provider or phone, but there are many places where signal sadly does not reach well. One friend had a radiant barrier in his roof, basically foil to help with insulation, terrible signal from any carrier within the house, or you may live in a valley, bad signals of any kind, my office has terrible wireless coverage (of any kind) because of something in its construction. Those places your carrier isn't really "at fault" and $150 is a small price to pay, the rest of the time its just a cop out, probably should cost less.
When i cancel my contract to go to sprint, these are my first words that will be uttered..." Fuck you ,At&t"
@smartmouth
You're going to dump one of the worst carriers for... the other worst carrier?
A product you pay monthly for to fix a networks own failure to provide you with reliable 3G. Brilliant.
Incorrect. You pay *up front* for the box, and only pay monthly if you want unlimited calling for $20/month. Otherwise it just eats up your minutes.
isnt it. its is exactly what i thought when i saw other companies creating micro-cells. they do not want to build more infrastructure after the gross estimation on fiber-optic lines and now they want consumers to pay for their slice of the expansion so ATT doesnt have to.
this is AT&T way of making their 3G network more accessible without putting up a tower themselves, soon you will hear about how they have 3G everywhere thanks to these little boxes ppl have to pay for. Good way for AT&T to keep their cost down, make ppl pay to expand their network
The biggest challenges to a cell company putting up additional towers in any given area are the citizens of the given area. Everybody complains about the coverage, but the only way to fix it is to build more towers which nobody wants to do.
So, they started getting creative. It provides people with an alternative to just complaining about it and a solution in particular problem areas and homes.
That being said, I still think the pricing for this is outrageous. I wouldn't spend that much on a wireless router, let alone something that just makes and receives calls in addition to one.
@Fatima, when you pay as much of a monthly fee as I do for my AT&T service, being able to make phone calls at home is kind of ideal.
@Fatima
Are you a moron? The primary function of this is to provide people with decent voice service in a location where signal is weak/non-existent.
You've gotta be a serious ATT fanboi to want to pay MORE to your wireless provider BECAUSE they provide you with BAD service!
Jesus. Just switch to VZW.
reuthermonkey1, steel building I work in downtown SF has weak signal no matter what services you have - it's combination of steel-concrete-height of the building. The price is a frickin joke, but the device is not bad.
3g sucks, it wastes too much power,
and if you have dsl why not just use the internet from a computer instead from your cell phone.
"and if you have dsl why not just use the internet from a computer instead from your cell phone."
The femtocell is to allow phone calls where you have no signal. The 3g part is because phone calls are higher quality over 3g, and to enable web features on phones without wifi.
I've seen so many people say "Why don't you just use wifi", totally missing the point that this allows phone calls and text messages where you wouldn't have been able to use them before.
Sure, 3G voice is higher quality ... but it does suck up a lot more battery power than Edge. In fact, 3G uses more battery for me than WiFi does. I would also prefer that it had Edge support, but I don't think any femtocells have multiple bandwidths, so maybe it's an FCC complication that AT&T/Cisco just doesn't want to deal with, hence 3G only. Still, it's not irrational to want the device to have Edge support.
As worn-out as I am on this whole AT&T MicroCell topic, I was just about to just close this tab when I saw your comment and thought I'd just point out that 3G usually drains your phone more quickly because there are fewer 3G cell towers than 2G cell towers. This requires your phone to increase the amount of power it uses to send a signal back to the more distant tower, draining your battery more quickly. So *theoretically* if the "tower" is right in your room, your phone should be able to use minimal power to transmit and thereby increase your battery life.
I live in Raleigh, and AT&T's service map makes it appear as if you shouldn't need one of these to get great 3G service. Do they not have great service here also? If so, I don't see how they've avoided a massive lawsuit due to false advertising. Go to the following link, enter 27560 as the zip, and then check off the box for 3G coverage. Looks like they are saying great coverage, but I wonder if that is really the case.
http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/
This is tailor made for the subdivisions on the outskirts of Raleigh ("fringe areas"), not for folks living in downtown.
Their coverage map shows strong 3G signal even past Apex and Chapel Hill, not just in downtown.
The box is for inside use within a 300 ft radius. Not to cover large swaths of land. What are you talking about? It's not AT&T's fault you don't get signal penetration inside a cinder-block high-rise, or your basement TV room.
This is meant for people who cannot get signal inside their homes. I used to not be able to get signal within one room in my house for any carrier (t-mobile, verizon, alltel, sprint, and At&t) but the moment i stepped outside I had full bars on my iphone and everything was blazing fast, thus it wasn't their networy but something in my house that blocked signals. This unit is designed to work within your house to prevent those dead zones usually caused by certain building materials, metal roofs, etc.
I mentioned this but did not reply to the specific post. In this area, the 3G coverage map is way optimistic leaving lots of bad areas that show up as nice dark blue anyway.
Also, if you look, the 3g signal drops off very quickly west of RTP where there are lots of houses being built in teh last couple of years and thousands more planned for the future at the edge of Cary. Looking at coverage maps all over the US, this is pretty common for ATTs network as they are playing catch-up, so this should help many people in the burbs
I'm still wondering how ISPs like Comcast will react to this, and what about bandwidth caps? Plus a lot of DSL lines don't have a fast upstream speed.
Wait a sec... they are charging me to use my own bandwidth to make calls?
Why cant they just do voip over my wifi network and roam off their network?
Or better yet, another reason to stick to google voice... one universal number to ring my cell and my voip phones.
Actually, they're not charging you to use your broadband.
Can someone clarify the target user of this device? It is simply for people who want to cut the landline but whose homes are located in bad cell reception areas? Or is the idea that you could relinquish all landlines and use this for your 'net connection?
Ha, given just how much carriers hate tethering, I'd guess the former.
You need an internet connection for this device to function.
The idea is to fill in signal deficits inside a structure. The unlimited calling plan (priced at $20/month, below the monthly cost of a landline) would functionally replace a home landline phone if you so choose.
Many people get calls and text messages on their cell phones, even when they are home. Having crap coverage there makes that a pain.
This thing is a POS. I picked one up last week in Charlotte because my phone wouldn't work inside, but worked fine outside. Now my phone works inside, but not outside. The phone won't switch back to 3G from Microcell quick enough, so when I am outside, I have the same problem I use to have inside!!!
Femtocell is a good idea for US market where cell towers have height limits and frequencies are higher than in Europe (meaning worse penetration through walls).
And folks, stop complaining about AT&T. Other carriers are not any better. AT&T IP network might have problems because it was overloaded with iPhone customers using internet, but everything else works just fine. At my previous work at huge company we received about 1k phones via company order. Guess what? Cell serving our campus went down instantly. AT&T built new cell in 2 days!
All carriers once in a while have problems with SMS delivery. In fact, GSM phone users on AT&T and T-Mobile are using SMS messages 10 times more often than CDMA users. As for drop calls and no coverage. I have a Verizon phone as well, that's the same peace of pie. My friend was constantly complaining about quality of calls over AT&T and in a year after he bought the phone he finally discovered that he had faulty 3d party software that was lagging the phone! Once he uninstalled it, voice quality improved drastically as well as battery life. People tend to blame service and somebody else, but not themselves. If they spent few minutes to investigate and troubleshoot the issue, complaints would abate.
@alex904 : I talk to enough people on ATT phones to know that their garbled voices are due to them having a bad voice network too. It aint just their data.
Cool technology, but way to pricey. IMO the upfront costs need to be sub-$100 without any monthly fees to make sense. I don't see why anyone would pay additional money to use an iPhone, Blackberry, etc. If they want my business they need to provide good coverage at work AND at home.
Even if this made a phone go from 3 or 4 bars to Full bars of connection, that'll be better for calls, battery life, internet speed, etc.
What about radiation?
Will we need to wear tin foil hats?
I don't get it...shouldn't these be free or heavily subsidsed????
it's 3G right so I have to buy a separate device so I can get something that should work out of the box.....
Darren,
Any word if the rebate for DSL customers also applies to U-Verse customers?
I've got a request in with AT&T, waiting on an answer for this.
Just heard back & updated -- no rebate for U-verse users. Sucks.
Okay, just re-heard back. U-verse customers are too eligible for the extra $50 rebate, but it applies to "new customers only." So it sounds like existing U-verse / DSL customers are out to dry.
Why not just get a wifi phone? A little Google Voice and a phone which switches from GSM to WiFi and this is unneeded....unless you are some sort of iPhone addict.
Enough with this soft launch stuff. Release the darn thing already. And why is the FCC so concerned with this mirocell? Did they worry as much with the other companies and their E911 capabilities?
Yes ... yes they did.