Free AT&T MicroCell

[WissMAN]

I got one about two months ago. I had tried the store approach and had no luck. I called att and was upfront with the agent (I was asking for a $150 credit so I could buy one at the store). She had no idea but was willing to look into it.

After 30 or so minutes the credit was applied as a "one time courtesy". I bought mine the next day.

My neighbor heard about mine, stopped by the att store and was handed one.

We live in the Plano, TX area for what it matters. Maybe other areas are more or less agreeable. However in my case I called so location does not matter.

Hope it helps.

I also bet not being on a contract helps... (but I am).

 

[lsbuffs]

As others have noted, this isn't as great a solution to reception problems as it may seem. I had marginal coverage in my office, but when I went upstairs, I'd usually have 4-5 bars. Now with the MicroCell installed in my office, I'm five bars all the time there, but 2-3 elsewhere in the house. So installation actually degraded my reception for everywhere at home except the 20-30ft radius from my office.

By the way, was never really interested in getting one, but received an unsolicited letter from AT&T offering one for free, so decided to give it a try. I may take it back as overall it seems to have reduced my overall coverage. Not to mention it's taking my bandwidth and requires one of my precious Ethernet ports.

 

[Sirius389]

Went in to the store today to ask, no dice. Told me to call in about it. Called, and nothing.

All about luck and talking to the right person at the right time.

I called a few times today and got different stories. mostly about how they were not giving them away etc

I finally got a tech support rep who acknowledged that I do have a coverage issue when I am home. (There are some towers near my home that interfere)

So I did get one about an hour ago. Set it up and instead of having 1-2 bars I have 4-5!

 

[nunes013]

Its probably on 1900Mhz which doesn't penetrate objects as well as 850Mhz...that and the microcell is tuned to broadcast much lower power than something like wifi because the signal would propagate to far...I know thats the case with the 850 band but maybe not the 1900 band. Go to wireless advisor.com and type in your zip. If AT&T only has a 1900Mhz licence that might be the issue. With omni-directional antennas its best to put the broadcaster/antenna up as high as possible (within reason) or else you won't optimize the signal.

it says there is 1900 and 850. 700 planned in the future. the problem is there is one cell tower near us which is like 4 miles away and covers most of our town. they wanted to build a new one just four blocks away from my house but now the parents are complaining because it would be built next to an elementary school and they are afraid it will give the little kids brain cancer . so they are still debating so we will see. but literally i get 1 bar in some parts of my house and no service in others. the microcell is good but like i said it doesnt cover my entire house so i guess we will wait and see.

 

[nateo200]

it says there is 1900 and 850. 700 planned in the future. the problem is there is one cell tower near us which is like 4 miles away and covers most of our town. they wanted to build a new one just four blocks away from my house but now the parents are complaining because it would be built next to an elementary school and they are afraid it will give the little kids brain cancer . so they are still debating so we will see. but literally i get 1 bar in some parts of my house and no service in others. the microcell is good but like i said it doesnt cover my entire house so i guess we will wait and see.

That's strange then...Are you sure its configured right? Like you see "AT&T Micro-Cell" as the carrier tag? Sounds defective or like its not broadcasting properly because I've seen allot of reviews showing the distance being pretty good or at least on par with WiFi....

As for parents complaining about the kids getting cancer...ugh so much paranoia and uneducation regarding this topic. I bet none of them can pronounce "Non-ionizing radiation" . One thing I have to say to them (not you) Don't complain about bad cellular service while at the same time bitching about "the ugly cancerous cell towers invading our minds".

Ok I'm done

 

[kleinias]

That's strange then...Are you sure its configured right? Like you see "AT&T Micro-Cell" as the carrier tag? Sounds defective or like its not broadcasting properly because I've seen allot of reviews showing the distance being pretty good or at least on par with WiFi...

Remember that this is probably going to be location dependent. In other words, the Microcell might work well in one area but adjust itself (to a lower output) in another area. This is probably dependent on area towers etc.

 

[adampol15]

Deleted

 

[nunes013]

That's strange then...Are you sure its configured right? Like you see "AT&T Micro-Cell" as the carrier tag? Sounds defective or like its not broadcasting properly because I've seen allot of reviews showing the distance being pretty good or at least on par with WiFi....

As for parents complaining about the kids getting cancer...ugh so much paranoia and uneducation regarding this topic. I bet none of them can pronounce "Non-ionizing radiation" . One thing I have to say to them (not you) Don't complain about bad cellular service while at the same time bitching about "the ugly cancerous cell towers invading our minds".
Image
Ok I'm done

well its next to two routers (i have my own for when im home from college for airport disks) so it might be. it shows ATT M-Cell but i would say it can only pass 3 walls before going down to 1 or 2 bars. At first I had 4-5 and now i get 1-2 at the end of the house so i think it is both routers as nothing else has changed except for that.

and with the cell tower im upset because they put a cell tower next to the high school a few years ago. im upset because they did that and cell waves are always traveling through the kids as a signal travels 20 miles. dont they realize this???

 

[BIG BOSS]

Got mine today for FREE!

 

[RHELF]

Long painful story relatively short.. .

I called AT&T because of terrible reception at home. 0-2 bars tops, but usually only 1 bar. I went through the normal troubleshooting 3-4 times at which point they told me there were 4 cell towers within a 10 mile radius of my home that were all degraded with "no immediate plans to upgrade." They offered to replace my iphone 4, but then quickly realized the problem was their service so a replacement would be pointless. So I asked for a free microcell and they said they "NEVER give them away for free but could offer me a discounted rate." I gave the "why should i have to pay extra for a service to work that I am already paying for" line and they basically said "too bad."

2 supervisors later I was so angry I told them to cancel my contract and I would go to Verizon. They had the nerve to try to charge me an early termination fee despite the fact that THEY were the ones in breach of the contract by not providing the services I was paying for.

2 more supervisors later, I ask for a free microcell because it is only right at this point for them to give me one since my service was bad and they had no plans to fix the towers by my home. Again, "We never give them away for free." I had mentioned the macrumors forums as well as their own facebook page and how people were getting them for free and I even READ THE LETTER that people were getting saying they were entitled to a free microcell that I found online. This supervisor basically called me a liar and denied such a letter ever existed. I hung up on him and immediately called back to speak to another supervisor. A very nice woman with a southern accent picks up and I explain my experience. She apologized as her script said to(I had their scripts memorized at this point) and she says she will ask her supervisor if she can get me a free microcell. I must have gone through 6-8 customer service reps and she is the first one that seemed to actually care even a little bit. She puts me on hold and 30 seconds later comes back and asks me which AT&T store is closest to my home so I can go pick up my free microcell.

So after 3 days of dealing with excuse after excuse and rude customer service reps and supervisors, I finally have the microcell and it is working extremely well. 5 bars at all times.

My advice to those who are having issues getting one would be to go through their troubleshooting(even when you know it will not make a difference) and be polite at all costs. Be persistant. I don't want to say that it's a matter of annoying them until you get one, but it seems that this is what is happening. I'm sure there is some mark on my account listing me as an irate customer, but when you pay for a service that you are not receiving and the fault rests solely on the company that is supposed to be providing it, I feel they should do what it takes to keep their customers happy. That is what AT&T doesn't seem to understand.

OR....you could get lucky and just walk into a store and get one with no hassle whatsoever which is what I wish could have happened to me.

 

[AndrewR23]

About the free micro cells that people are getting, do you still have to pay monthly?

 

[scoobydoo99]

The lady I spoke to said that there's a $100 rebate, which brings the price down to $49, but it's still $19.99/month, which is ridiculous.

If anyone else has any luck getting one for free, including the monthly charge, please let us know.

First of all, the Microcell is $199.99 not 149.99

Secondly, there is no monthly charge unless you want the minutes used over the microcell to not count against your monthly allotment (i.e. you want to buy unlimited calling from the microcell). Otherwise, you plug it in and use your phone as normal with no additional monthly charges.

I got one, and it is OK. Usually 4-5 bars. Have to reboot it about once a month when it suddenly "loses" its connection.

 

[ant69]

I have had my micro cell for a month now and I have been very pleased. I saw my iPhone hook up to the micro cell while I was at my mail box, =/- 100 feet from the house. Everyone on my list gets at least four bars anywhere in the house and most of the yard. The set up was easy and I have no complaints. If I can get ADT to use a VOIP connection instead of a land line, I would lose the land line. I set up a micro cell at my friend's house and it was just as easy as mine to set up. I suppose micro cells are like everything else, you get good ones and occasionally you get a bad one.

ADT offer a product called Safewatch Cellguard (i have it) which basically communicates celluarly between your alarm system and ADT's monitoring agents, i don't think there's a monthly increase in cost but the unit cost me around $40 i think? - i got this just so i could get rid of my land line

Ant

 

[ivandr]

About the free micro cells that people are getting, do you still have to pay monthly?

Nope. It just continues to use your minutes... Now that I've set it up I havana an option on my feature management (wireless.att.com) to add a 19.99/mo feature for unlimited microcell calls... I have way too many rollover minutes (18k+ ) so I have no need to throw att any more cash...