AT&T Microcell

[Fernley]

Just an FYI for folks.
I bought one of these for my home 2 months ago.
Paid $99 for it.
Took less than an hour to set up and start working.
It works flawlessly.

I was a mostly content VZW customer for a long time with great service at my house. I switched to AT&T for a couple reasons.

Great AT&T 3g service in my town....... EXCEPT at my house wich is apparently geographically in a cell dead spot for AT&T. Who knew?

Anyway the answer to that crisis was the Microcell and I am posting this in case others are struggling with decent coverage and were looking for an alternative or were unsure.

NO I do not work for AT&T.

 

[Baldilocks]

Are you paying monthly for the Microcell?

I put up a ZBoost repeater in my house. (I have a metal roof, metal siding and brick underlay.)..

I paid a bit more ($300) but there is no monthly fee, or limit to how many users or what carrier it works with.

 

[Fernley]

No monthly fee. Its a one time purchase.

The only draw backs that I can see at this point is a power outage since it needs to be plugged in or if my cable internet goes down since that is also a requirement.

So if either of those fail so will my microcell.

But for the most part that's only happened once in the past 2 years and only briefly.

 

[james515]

i have one also, we live between 2 towers and depending on what room of the house we are in depends on the signal we get.
the 3g micro cell really helped out. they say it has about a 40 ft radius.

a few things to be aware of. lets say you are driving home while talking on he phone and your signal is fine, except when you get into your garage and your call usually drops. the Micro cell will NOT fix that issue as calls originated on the cellular network cant hand off to the 3g micro cell.

Now if you originate a call in your house while on the 3G micro cell and you leave the house, your call WILL hand off to the cellular network.

also you can only have up to 5 authorized AT&T cell phones attached to or allowed to use the micro cell. you can edit the list in your AT&T account settings on the web. the first time you set it up you might have to power cycle the phone so it will re-scan and find the 3g micro cell

sometimes, and I do mean sometimes, if you complain frequently about poor coverage (if you actually have poor coverage with frequent dropped calls, which AT&T can verify it is actually happening) you might get one for free. it all depends on who you talk to and what kind of mood they are in.

James

 

[mzaur]

I think it's incredible that you're paying for a service, and you have to pay extra for a device to make the service work in your house. AT&T should be giving free microcells to anyone who has a confirmed deadspot in their home.

 

[Fernley]

I think it's incredible that you're paying for a service, and you have to pay extra for a device to make the service work in your house. AT&T should be giving free microcells to anyone who has a confirmed deadspot in their home.

Wouldn't that be a dream.
The truth is nothing is free and certainly nothing from AT&T or any other conglomerate.

I live in a very rural area and when a person makes that lifestyle choice as we have you understand quickly that there are somethings that others take for granted that you either have to find a way to make it happen or do with out it.

There are MANY people in my county who have no options for, cable TV or internet let alone cell coverage regardless of carrier; so the idea that I had to purchase a device that gets me service is not an affront, it's life NOT in the big city or worse yet- "the burbs."

 

[2manyPHONES]

I was offered a free microcell. So I guess it depends on who you talk to.

 

[james515]

I think it's incredible that you're paying for a service, and you have to pay extra for a device to make the service work in your house. AT&T should be giving free microcells to anyone who has a confirmed deadspot in their home.

ALL of the wireless carriers specifically state "service not available in all areas" in their contracts, this includes your house, or any where you might be. Does it suck...yes... but thats how it works with wireless networks.

James