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I was reluctant to give AT&T more of my money but it works as advertised. Picked one up today and I now have 5 bars (instead of 1) and crystal clear calls at my home office. Not opting for the unlimited calls since I am just piggybacking off my existing plan.

I assume you are in NC?
 
I can't wait to switch to Verizon, where I can pay $100 more for the exact same service. Stupid AT&T and their lower price.
 
Most of you who are complaining sound pretty dumb. You're mad that AT&T has poor service in your area. Who the hell told you to sign up with them? They're trying to extend their coverage to you, and when they do you still bitch. Jeeze. Either drop them or just deal with it. If however you signed up with AT&T and their map shows you have good coverage in your area, call and complain and get some months for free. I guarantee you will get your wish if you demand and make your point to them properly.

AT&T is definitely the most expensive but clearly they're smart if they convinced you to sign up with them and they have bad service in your area....

coverage changes especially now that att is doing 3g - 4g switchover / "upgrade"
 
David.

AT&T's own website says that there is no required recurring monthly charge.

Where is the confusion? :confused:

If I am off here I'll stop ranting, but there was a 20$ additional for unlimited usage minutes of your local femtocell.

is this not the case? others also seem to be thinking this.

again I am not opposed to the 1, 2, 3, hundred dollar price tag, just the recurrings for unlimited use of _my_ wire.

btw thx for the 4 concurrent connection clarification on page 5ish, that is much less heartburn on the COS point I mentioned above, also I modified my post.
 
If you have ATT home phone, why would you want this?

I second that claim. I live in Chicago as well and I have dropped calls all the time. I think if you have ATT Home phone and ATT internet you get to use this for free.


It's not a revelation that the home phone is obsolete but when will ATT get a clue here. If I'm willing to pay for their internet, this service should be free. Heck, if you're in a WIFI area use the Google app if this isn't a free service for the violently expensive iPhone plan. When will the consumer get a break? Stop advertising with these celebrities and let us have cheaper service!
 
Where are you in Denver? I have fantastic 3G service pretty much everywhere I go in Denver (sure, it can drop down to EDGE when you enter a hilly portion of town, terrain blockages do plague mountain areas on any cell network). Also, I live in Evergreen and ATT just installed a 3G tower by my house.

I have a friend in downtown denver who says the same thing. I can't use my cell at home and I live in downtown Sacramento, CA.
 
Some really knee jerk, vile reactions above. Man, you folks REALLY need to get another carrier. I have decent service, but I want it to be as perfect as possible and I think this device is a great idea and a good deal at $150. I have ATT DSL and an ATT Landline, so I get the benefit of free unlimited calling.

And guess what, ATT is not making me buy it nor are they making me stay with their service. Free country - switch and see if the grass is greener. And no stupid comments about a ETF - the $175 is chump change when you consider what you pay yearly for the service. If you don't like the service, move on.
 
There are two features in the microcell sites to lock the phones being used. 1. It records the SIM # of your phones. 2. It has a built-in GPS unit so you can't even move it to another location.

This is probably to keep you from plugging it into the Network in another Country.

But wait, that's what MajicJack does, except for having to have a telephone plugged into the MajicJack and a computer to plug in the MajicJaxck. And hardware $20 and $20/year unlimited calls.

It would be nice for me if they would just come out with a iPhone to VOIP modem.

In my last home, they didn't have a 3G tower, and the EDGE was terrible. Even the bars were very low. Dropped calls, etc. I may have paid $300 for the unit them. I was thinking of buying a Cell Repeater for about $300. Do a search for that one!!! You may find it interesting.
 
I was all set to open this thread and find everybody bitching about the cost for no good reason.

But seriously... you Americans really get shafted. AT+T have a cheek! I really, really hope nobody signs up for this.



"Up to 5 bars in your home" - it's not really something to brag about, is it? Pay us a further $20 on top of your monthly bill and you could, potentially, possibly, probably, likely, maybe get up to 5 bars signal strength.
 
And forty feet is squat. So instead of having to hang out the window to make a call, I'll have to be IN the room where the microcell is.


You've got it!!! Or have it at floor level on the 2nd floor in the Middle of a 2 story house, or in the middle of the house at ceiling level for a 1 story. For a lot of people, they don't want to run cables into the middle of a house.

They should have placed a Wireless adapter in it to connect you your WiFi Modem/Router. Then you could have placed it anywhere without having to have Ethernet wired to it.

I wonder if anyone else, besides Cisco, makes a MicroCell device that would connect wirelessly. I'll have to do some research on that one.
 
If I am off here I'll stop ranting, but there was a 20$ additional for unlimited usage minutes of your local femtocell.

is this not the case? others also seem to be thinking this.
AT&T gives you two choices:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
$20.00/month extra to add unlimited MicroCell minutes to your normal plan minutes.

Here's how the rest of the market pans out for their version of the MicroCell:

T-Mobile gives you one choice:
no option (I saw) to just use your normal plan minutes
$09.99/month extra to add unlimited WiFi minutes to your normal plan.

Verizon gives you one choice:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
no option (I saw) to add unlimited minutes

Sprint gives you two choices:
$04.99/month to use your normal plan minutes
$10.00/month to add unlimited Airave minutes to your normal plan
 
Some really knee jerk, vile reactions above. Man, you folks REALLY need to get another carrier. I have decent service, but I want it to be as perfect as possible and I think this device is a great idea and a good deal at $150. I have ATT DSL and an ATT Landline, so I get the benefit of free unlimited calling.

And guess what, ATT is not making me buy it nor are they making me stay with their service. Free country - switch and see if the grass is greener. And no stupid comments about a ETF - the $175 is chump change when you consider what you pay yearly for the service. If you don't like the service, move on.

I _had_ AT&T dsl for years until they just didn't cut it anymore. I need statics and faster upstream. I was paying for a biz class acct and it was pathetic. I still pay for a biz class acct w/time warner and it runs about 10 more, but was worth it. The only reason I have TW is because I cannot get fios, for some AT&T dsl is good enough, but not for everyone. This device is intended to leach bandwith across multiple providers, why not make the monthly unlim free, and just make us buy the device. I spent $200 on my cradlepoint router, and would pay the same for this one, the recurring is what is unreasonable.
 
The way to fight it is to have your own mind and settle for a phone that can't do as much, it's really that simple. It's sad but simple. Ex: blackberry/sprint. Take it easy.

The iPhone has a lot of direct competition - particularly the Palm Pre and HTC Hero, and you'd be nuts to write them off.

As for the 2 year contract thing, in most places you have anywhere between 2 weeks and a month to decide whether or not the service works and return the phone. I don't really believe the "THE NETWORK WAS GREAT FOR THE FIRST 2 WEEKS AND NOW I GET 1 BAR AT HOME!" baloney, those people just have such iPhone obsession they can't realize that AT&T doesn't care about covering their home area.

I'm lucky, that where I live everything (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, and even MetroPCS) grants me good coverage. I don't have to be picky, but then I don't choose to do business with AT&T because I can't afford it in the first place.

I think anyone that pays $150 for a device to use their $80/mo (after tax) phone that cost them anywhere between $50 and $300, is a sucker. You can argue with me all you want about how having an iPhone makes you the perfect social butterfly, but I still think you're a sucker.
 
I was all set to open this thread and find everybody bitching about the cost for no good reason.

But seriously... you Americans really get shafted. AT+T have a cheek! I really, really hope nobody signs up for this.



"Up to 5 bars in your home" - it's not really something to brag about, is it? Pay us a further $20 on top of your monthly bill and you could, potentially, possibly, probably, likely, maybe get up to 5 bars signal strength.


First, it's free. Second, why do you care about us Americans and our service?
 
AT&T gives you two choices:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
$20.00/month extra to add unlimited MicroCell minutes to your normal plan minutes.

Here's how the rest of the market pans out for their version of the MicroCell:

T-Mobile gives you one choice:
no option (I saw) to just use your normal plan minutes
$09.99/month extra to add unlimited WiFi minutes to your normal plan.

Verizon gives you one choice:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
no option (I saw) to add unlimited minutes

Sprint gives you two choices:
$04.99/month to use your normal plan minutes
$10.00/month to add unlimited Airave minutes to your normal plan

I'm glad someone is presenting the facts. Thanks.
 
AT&T gives you two choices:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
$20.00/month extra to add unlimited MicroCell minutes to your normal plan minutes.

Here's how the rest of the market pans out for their version of the MicroCell:

T-Mobile gives you one choice:
no option (I saw) to just use your normal plan minutes
$09.99/month extra to add unlimited WiFi minutes to your normal plan.

Verizon gives you one choice:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
no option (I saw) to add unlimited minutes

Sprint gives you two choices:
$04.99/month to use your normal plan minutes
$10.00/month to add unlimited Airave minutes to your normal plan

so, then the logical thing here is for them to charge 9.95 MAX, as another cellular device on your account. there is your and my compromise.

oh and I can move it anywhere I want, so I can pay for my parent's femtocell for example.

$20 is too much, if they are going to charge $20 for unlim, make that $20 for all the minutes you can use femtocell or otherwise for all the phones on your family plan...1 charge more flexibility less backlash. seriously they need to reevaluate what people find reasonable. I can't wait until the tether plan comes out and they want to charge you what they do for an aircard (which I have both AT&T & VZW) how will they rationalize that one?
 
I was reluctant to give AT&T more of my money but it works as advertised. Picked one up today and I now have 5 bars (instead of 1) and crystal clear calls at my home office. Not opting for the unlimited calls since I am just piggybacking off my existing plan.
Fellow Charlottean here...

I get 5 bars all throughout my condo, so the MicroCell does nothing for me with respect to improving signal quality. In my case, the ONLY reason to get one of these is if I ALSO sign up for the $19.95 Unlimited plan, so that I can use my iPhone as a sort of landline-substitute. But seeing as how I never use all of my minutes anyway (and I have the cheapest AT&T iPhone plan), again that would make no sense.

So despite the fact that I am a gadget freak and this is a pretty cool gadget, I'm going to hold off until the time comes when the Unlimited plan makes sense for me.
 
I was all set to open this thread and find everybody bitching about the cost for no good reason.

But seriously... you Americans really get shafted. AT+T have a cheek! I really, really hope nobody signs up for this.



"Up to 5 bars in your home" - it's not really something to brag about, is it? Pay us a further $20 on top of your monthly bill and you could, potentially, possibly, probably, likely, maybe get up to 5 bars signal strength.

AT&T does NOT require you to pay $20 a month to use the Microcell, please READ before you post something like this, you are just proving my point about the amount of ignorance in these forums.
 
I said it before in the post and I'll say it again (since no one still seems to be reading the FAQ page about this thing): Now I know why we have such a crappy, uneducated & uninformed discussion on health care. People just want to scream, get pissed off and shout at someone - anyone. No one seems to know how to debate anymore. Here's a "crazy" concept. How about READING the damn information first?




Seriously? Show me ONE - ONE provider that has cell phone coverage EVERYWHERE? And I mean everywhere -in thick buildings, in ALL cities in all areas, in all forrest parks, in all large grocery stores, in all rural areas. Tell me, who? Because if you can find one, then you have the next big thing in all communications, not just cellular. The answer of course is NO ONE. Not Sprint, not T-Mobile, not AT&T. Again NO ONE!! So, get off of this one track argument and come back to reality.

Jeez, I'm not a big fan of AT&T, but this hate-mongering is getting ridiculous.

A few facts:
(1) You pay for the device ONE TIME.
(2) You pay $20 ONLY FOR THE UNLIMITED CALLS SERVICE. Otherwise it is free.

If you get good service in your area but maybe not in your home (maybe because it is old, has steel beams, whatever), then this thing would be for you.

It does NOT :
(a) Give cell service to your neighbor or anyone else (unless you want it to)
(b) Make you and your family into alien robots eating the flesh of your neighbors.**
(c) Microwave your burrito**
(d) Get you free porn**

** Sorry, had to throw these last few ones in there for fun, since the crazy meter is apparently up today.

Nobody sane is arguing that there is one magical company that has perfect cell phone service everywhere. You claim people are saying this so you can marginalize them and make your argument sound reasonable, which it's not.

Look, when I bought my iPhone, I knew that AT&T service would be worse than the Verizon service I was getting. It was a trade-off I was willing to make because I really wanted the iPhone. And I didn't want the iPhone for the phone aspect, I wanted it mostly for everything else it does (and it does do everything else quite well).

Is it really so surprising that people are bothered by the fact that AT&T wants them to plunk 3/4 of the cost of a new iPhone to improve their service? These don't sound like crazy AT&T customers to me. What could be construed as crazy is arguing that this is no big deal, and that anybody who thinks otherwise is crazy or some sort of message-board crank.

Yes, the technology is fantastic. Yes, it will improve one's phone service. Yes, we all want it. But do we want to have to pay money just to bring our service to a basic level of reception that we should already be getting?

This is the problem us crazies have. Decent reception should be included in the package we already have. The fact that it's not and that AT&T wants us to pay a "reception tax" is why most of us are so upset.
 
AT&T gives you two choices:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
$20.00/month extra to add unlimited MicroCell minutes to your normal plan minutes.

Here's how the rest of the market pans out for their version of the MicroCell:

T-Mobile gives you one choice:
no option (I saw) to just use your normal plan minutes
$09.99/month extra to add unlimited WiFi minutes to your normal plan.

Verizon gives you one choice:
$00.00/month extra to use your normal plan minutes
no option (I saw) to add unlimited minutes

Sprint gives you two choices:
$04.99/month to use your normal plan minutes
$10.00/month to add unlimited Airave minutes to your normal plan


WHAT!! Sprint is charging $5 a month for the minutes you already bought? DOUBLE DIPPING! No wonder they keep losing customers each month.
 
Right now, I use my iPhone in my house, with unlimited mobile-to-mobile, more night and weekend minutes than I know what to do with, and more rollover minutes than I can count... and AT&T actually thinks I'm going to pay an upfront fee of $150 plus $20 per month IN ADDITION to what I already pay???

Are they out of their !$#$#%#$#@#$#$#$# MINDS ???????????? :eek::eek::eek:

This is perhaps THE WORST public relations mistake they could have made. With AT&T's image already tarnished, this is like squirting lighter fluid on an out of control camp fire. This move by AT&T is social suicide.
 
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