Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AT&T Microcell is a GOD Send

C

cis4life

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2008
216
67
So I recently purchased a new house and the area where I now live, ATT service is kinda weak in the house. On a good day and in certain places I hovered around 2 bars.

So I picked up my new iPhone 4 and noticed the MicroCell was released in our area. I picked one of those up also and hooked it up (praying to cure my weak reception woes). Sure enough, I went from 1 - 2 bars to FULL bars and Not A Dropped Call since. PLUS, all my calls made from the house are free (don't go against my minutes). So the wife and I are thrilled that this thing ACTUAL WORKED (ATT, go figure).

So those with reception woes (outside of the bumper fix issues) but with real reception woes due to weak reception areas, try a Microcell. It worked GREAT for me. It's only $50 for the unit.
 
cis4life said:
So I recently purchased a new house and the area where I now live, ATT service is kinda weak in the house. On a good day and in certain places I hovered around 2 bars.

So I picked up my new iPhone 4 and noticed the MicroCell was released in our area. I picked one of those up also and hooked it up (praying to cure my weak reception woes). Sure enough, I went from 1 - 2 bars to FULL bars and Not A Dropped Call since. PLUS, all my calls made from the house are free (don't go against my minutes). So the wife and I are thrilled that this thing ACTUAL WORKED (ATT, go figure).

So those with reception woes (outside of the bumper fix issues) but with real reception woes due to weak reception areas, try a Microcell. It worked GREAT for me. It's only $50 for the unit.
Click to expand...

I don't know how I missed it, but I had no idea these were out. I saw it about 3 hours ago, and if I weren't going out of town in the morning, I would already own one.

My 3GS has zero bars in my new apartment. I'm ecstatic that I might have functional phone coverage again. I'm buying one on Saturday when I fly back.
 
cis4life said:
So I recently purchased a new house and the area where I now live, ATT service is kinda weak in the house. On a good day and in certain places I hovered around 2 bars.

So I picked up my new iPhone 4 and noticed the MicroCell was released in our area. I picked one of those up also and hooked it up (praying to cure my weak reception woes). Sure enough, I went from 1 - 2 bars to FULL bars and Not A Dropped Call since. PLUS, all my calls made from the house are free (don't go against my minutes). So the wife and I are thrilled that this thing ACTUAL WORKED (ATT, go figure).

So those with reception woes (outside of the bumper fix issues) but with real reception woes due to weak reception areas, try a Microcell. It worked GREAT for me. It's only $50 for the unit.
Click to expand...

so...is there a monthly charge??? Where you able to pick it up or the shipped it to you?:confused:
 
How much does the service cost per month? From what I read when they were testing it you had two option, one that still used your monthly mins, which cost nothing, or $20 a month for unlimited. Is this still the case?
 
You don't have to add anything else to your plan if you don't want, it will just go against your minutes. But the wife and I or on a family share plan (i believe we have 1400 min) so we went ahead and picked up the extra $20 unlimited Microcell plan. This way any calls made from the house won't go against our minutes.

I picked up the $20 plan cause I get a NICE discount with my job, so after the sell rep finished optimizing our plans with everything, we actuall will save alot of money per month.

Win Win for us
 
Lostsol said:
What is the added monthly fee? (i assume there is one)
Click to expand...
The optional monthly fee is $19.99 for unlimited Microcell calling. Signing up for that gives you the $100 MIR as well.

I bought mine for the $150 and am not paying any monthly fees, because I hardly ever talk on the phone and I have over 2000 rollover minutes.

EDIT - spelling
 
I was able to go to my local AT&T and pick it up. They only had like 3 or so when I went. No one knew they were available yet. So I was in and out in a few minutes.

Well worth the investment
 
The lady I bought mmine from had no idea what it was or how it worked. I was explaining it to her, telling her I didn't have to get the plan and how only AT&T phones could use it. (Yea, she thought Verizon, T-Mo, and Sprint phones could use it too.)

Also, when I asked if they had any, she looked at me like I was an idiot and said "We have plenty."
 
Yeah, now that I got the microcell working it works great. Before I had it around 1 ft from the wireless router and had no reception.

I know you got it for $50 cuz you signed a 2 year contract for $20 unlimited while at home.

But.....if you spend half your time away from home, you couldve gotten unlimited everywhere for an extra $10 a month.

Oh well, guess it's good for families if the unlimited works for all phones while on the microcell?
 
How far away is your MicroCell from a window? I bought one today and I am having trouble setting it up. I called support and they said it's because it can't get a GPS lock. They said to move it closer to a window but its already only 8 feet from a big sliding glass door. Also, how long did it take from the time you plugged it in to the time it was actually up and running?


Thanks
 
I bought one as well over the weekend and love it. Same happened to me, went from 0-2 bars to a full 5 bars throughout the house, it's great.

I didn't do the monthly signup as the plan I have now is plenty and I have like 4000 rollover minutes. The MicroCell is $150 and there is a $100 rennet but you have to have the $20 a month plan to get the rebate...but nom contract is required so you could claim the rebate and then cancel the monthly plan I believe.
 
Mine is up on a shelf, 14 feet from a window. The initial set up takes like 2 hours, but after it gets GPS lock and everything the first time, subsequent start ups shouldn't take longer than 10-15 minutes.
 
NYR99 said:
How far away is your MicroCell from a window? I bought one today and I am having trouble setting it up. I called support and they said it's because it can't get a GPS lock. They said to move it closer to a window but its already only 8 feet from a big sliding glass door. Also, how long did it take from the time you plugged it in to the time it was actually up and running?


Thanks
Click to expand...

I have mine less the. 1 ft from a window.

Their systems were down all weekend and it wouldn't connect but once it came back onion it connected in about 20 minutes.
 
It should be fairly close to a window so that it can get a GPS lock. Mine is like a couple feet from the window.

I did the 20 dollar plan simply because my wife and I spend alot of time on calls at the house (My wife's a lawyer, and I'm a software engineer, so we are always on the phone with clients and such). The 20 dollar plan just worked for us due to how we use our phones. But I agree with many of you, if I had massive rollovers and such, I wouldn't have done the $20 plan.
 
Ugh! Now AT&T's site is down. Now I can't log in to my account to register my MicroCell.
 
NYR99 said:
Ugh! Now AT&T's site is down. Now I can't log in to my account to register my MicroCell.
Click to expand...

Well, you're experiencing a series of discouraging happenings...

Though, if you've already set it up on the site, then you don't have to again. It seemed like, from your earlier post, that you may have already been through that part.
 
cis4life said:
So I recently purchased a new house and the area where I now live, ATT service is kinda weak in the house. On a good day and in certain places I hovered around 2 bars.

So I picked up my new iPhone 4 and noticed the MicroCell was released in our area. I picked one of those up also and hooked it up (praying to cure my weak reception woes). Sure enough, I went from 1 - 2 bars to FULL bars and Not A Dropped Call since. PLUS, all my calls made from the house are free (don't go against my minutes). So the wife and I are thrilled that this thing ACTUAL WORKED (ATT, go figure).

So those with reception woes (outside of the bumper fix issues) but with real reception woes due to weak reception areas, try a Microcell. It worked GREAT for me. It's only $50 for the unit.
Click to expand...

I have read from many different sources that it does still count against your monthly minutes, reason being, even though it uses your internet at your house the data then goes through AT&T's back end network so it is still putting stress on their network, hence why they still charge you (which sucks) BUT its still a great solution for people like you
 
jpetticrew said:
Well, you're experiencing a series of discouraging happenings...

Though, if you've already set it up on the site, then you don't have to again. It seemed like, from your earlier post, that you may have already been through that part.
Click to expand...

I did have it registered, then after it didn't work, the AT&T rep told me to remove it from my account. Now I have to start all over again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back