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AT&T Trialling Free 3G MicroCell Offers

Skipping voice signal

Mine does this regardless if a case is on the phone or not. If I'm sitting next to the M-Cell, it doesn't happen, but if I'm more than 10 feet away, the other callers voice skips rapidly, so as to be unintelligible. Once you get within a 10 foot radius, either the call drops, or the voice stops skipping. It's a huge pain in the a**.
 
iBookG4user said:
This is rather ridiculous that you continue to use your minutes when you make a call through this even though you are using up your own bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Not really, because AT&T still has to terminate the call on a cell phone or land line at the other end. So no, you're not using one half of the connection AT&T usually provides, but you are still using the other. Skype has built an entire business around this.

AT&T gave me one for free because I complained about bad service although truthfully, it isn't that much better. My house is kind of old, so the signal doesn't penetrate the walls especially well. Plus, people I've talked to have said it has a definite "VOIP"-ey sound and we talk over each other a lot because of the latency on my crappy Internet connection.
 
This really torques me off. I just paid for one last month, and I didn't get the $100 rebate.

I called At&T to ask for a refund, they didn't know anything about, then decided it must be an internet hoax. When I showed them how widely it was being reported with no apparent debunking, they promised to look into it.

I'm certainly a "high value", long term customer, with a high monthly bill, and I had to pay them just get their service to work at my house.

At the very least, I want the $100 rebate option.

We'll see what they report back to me.

Can you take a company to small claims court for this?
 
If only they invested in making their coverage better in the first place and not trying to bypass it with other methods, just up your coverage AT&T
 
$100 Rebate

Called my local store, the $100 rebate is only available if you purchase the $19.99/month unlimited minute plan for microcell. I did not purchase this plan as I use my normal plan and had to pay full $150.00

BTW, it works fine. No latency, etc.
 
r00fus said:
Just have to convince the wife. Could replace our landline, if her international calls have enough quality.

Need to give em a call.

I'm no ATT fan, but for $50 a microcell sounds very tempting.
Click to expand...

You have to sign up for the microcell plan (which is an extra subscription) according to the previous rebate to get the rebate.

here is the previous expired on. Anyone got the current one ?

REBATE
 
Freyqq said:
"Speculation has suggested that customers being signaled out by AT&T for the offer are high-value customers with substantial monthly contracts that are nearing expiration. The MicroCell offer could then be considered an enticement to convince those customers to re-commit to AT&T for a new contract term."

you mean singled out
Click to expand...

My signal's been out since I moved to Brooklyn! :D:D:D
 
Go check out T-Mobile's UMA...

$9.99 a month, unlimited minutes, anyone's wifi, anywhere.

Why can't AT&T do this? If they did, I could go back to using an iPhone again.
 
rye9 said:
Have any of you that received the free microcell reported bad coverage or something via the "Mark the spot" app? I wonder if maybe that is a factor in their decisions of recipients.
Click to expand...

Yes, picked one up today and was told I received the 'discounted' price of $50 because I had previously used the 'mark-the-spot' app.
 
jmor said:
If only they invested in making their coverage better in the first place and not trying to bypass it with other methods, just up your coverage AT&T
Click to expand...

This isn't so easy to do. YOu have to get property to put it on, etc. And here in Kali-fornia, they start fighting about eyesores, etc and put up huge opposition to new towers.
 
mike5411 said:
To me the biggest flaw with the microcell is that if you use data on over the microcell it will come out of the 200mb or 2gb bucket for iPhone users (if you don't have the unlimited data). It's using my own internet, why do I have to go through the additional hassle of turning wifi on when the microcell is already using my Internet connection.
Click to expand...

I must be missing something here.... part of the requirements is to have some sort of internet connection in order to hook up the microcell to. If you have internet in the house, wouldn't you use wifi on your phone? Or doesn't your phone support wifi?
 
zhaofa90 said:
so we have to pay $150 for a device to make AT&T coverage not suck?

hmm
Click to expand...

every company sells these microcells - simply because it isn't possible to provide good coverage EVERYWHERE. I know someone who uses the Verizon Wireless Network Extender because they get crappy service in their house.
 
I have one and can't even get it to work reliably. An ATT tech support person is calling me Wednesday to see how it is after an exchange for a new one (which is actually worse the the one it replaced). Chances are I will be retuning mine for a refund (within 30 days of purchase).

I don't have a problem with the fact I need one. I'm inside a 80 year old house with plaster on brick outer walls and plaster on lather inner walls. I can't blame anyone for poor cell coverage there, but I do expect the damn MicroCell device to work.
 
RaceTripper said:
I have one and can't even get it to work reliably. An ATT tech support person is calling me Wednesday to see how it is after an exchange for a new one (which is actually worse the the one it replaced). Chances are I will be retuning mine for a refund (within 30 days of purchase).

I don't have a problem with the fact I need one. I'm inside a 80 year old house with plaster on brick outer walls and plaster on lather inner walls. I can't blame anyone for poor cell coverage there, but I do expect the damn MicroCell device to work.
Click to expand...

The only way to get mine working was to install it between the cable modem and my router. Works great now.
 
I think it's funny... first people complain that AT&T does not free up the network to handle applications like FaceTime that eat up bandwidth, then they provide a solution that uses a little of your bandwidth to give better service to people in bad reception areas and you complain again.

I sort of get the feeling that some people are never happy?

I'm guessing they are picking customers they know to be in bad reception area's that have an iPhone and potentially use a lot of 3G bandwidth. For those of you that got a free tower... how many MB's/BG's do you use a month?

Just taking a guess on how they picked. I'm sure there is some criteria.
:D
 
ruzz1141 said:
The only way to get mine working was to install it between the cable modem and my router. Works great now.
Click to expand...
My problem isn't the interaction between the M-Cell and my broadband service, it's getting my two iPhone 3GS to lock on to it and stay locked on in my home. I can come home and an hour later it still hasn't connected. I can switch Airplane Mode on and off to force it, and 5 minutes later it will disconnect, or not. It's a crap shoot whether I can make a call via the M-Cell. If it's actually connected then it works fine.
 
I got one too...but it might be because of complaining

I got a letter friday and picked it up on sunday. My family is nowhere near contracts expiring (the earliest is 2011). But, I did do a few things; called to complain about reception at my house, filed an FCC complaint about false advertising; whereby it says on the AT&T map there is coverage when there is not, and then signing up for updates about the 3G microcell several months ago when it was still in limited areas. Other than that I can think of no other reason for getting it. The service at my house sucks and this makes up for it considerably.
 
Popeye206 said:
...
I'm guessing they are picking customers they know to be in bad reception area's that have an iPhone and potentially use a lot of 3G bandwidth. For those of you that got a free tower... how many MB's/BG's do you use a month?

Just taking a guess on how they picked. I'm sure there is some criteria.
:D
Click to expand...
The M-Cell isn't for data, it's for voice. If you use it for data you're missing the whole point of it (and wasting your bandwidth), because if you are in the service area of your M-Cell then you should be using wireless LAN for data rather than 3G.
 
iBookG4user said:
This is rather ridiculous that you continue to use your minutes when you make a call through this even though you are using up your own bandwidth.
Click to expand...

Hmm. I'm got the basic Nation plan for calling, and with the 3G Microcell I get Unlimited. Not that I call that much, actually. I've got thousands of extra minutes on the plan as it is.

But I can also authorize up to ten different numbers for us with this thing, and all of them get Unlimited minutes.
 
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