The AT&T 3G MicroCell Owner's Thread

central jersey here.. just installed the micro-cell.. up and running in 45 minutes..

iphones connected to it immediately 5 bars where we had 1 to 2! Is this finally the cure to my nearly 3 year old quest for a mobile phone to work consistently in my house? HOPE SO!!

I crabbed at AT&T for about an hour and a half a month or so ago, and forced them to look at my record of dropped calls, which were insane and inordinate... there were a few weeks where EVERY call I was on in or near my house was dropped. I was ready to give up on the iPhone... they offered a $150 credit to my to bill (a 3 iPhone family plan), to try the micro-cell, and here it goes! I'm hopeful.

I'm a little concerned about yet another wireless transmitter in my house, (wifi, now this) does anyone know what frequency this runs on? is it safe to be sitting right next to a miniature transmitter for hours on end?
 
So... the real question about the AT&T Microcell:

Has it been hacked or is there a relatively easy way to spoof the required GPS signal so that you can get free service on your AT&T device while abroad?
 
Skype

tuna said:
So... the real question about the AT&T Microcell:

Has it been hacked or is there a relatively easy way to spoof the required GPS signal so that you can get free service on your AT&T device while abroad?
Click to expand...

Why go through all that trouble -- using Microcell assumes a good broadband connection. A cheap, EXCELLENT Sennheiser USB headset is $24, and Skype is free to very inexpensive.
 
lsg1 said:
Why go through all that trouble -- using Microcell assumes a good broadband connection. A cheap, EXCELLENT Sennheiser USB headset is $24, and Skype is free to very inexpensive.
Click to expand...

Eh, if I was studying abroad for 5 months and my apartment had good internet, I could definitely see the attraction of being able to send and receive calls, texts, and voicemail from my regular number. If there wasn't the GPS restriction and it would work, then for the $150 device I would definitely do it.
 
I've had my microcell for about 2 weeks and have been running into some problems when it comes to phone calls. I may have a defective unit, but am not fully sure yet....

here are some of the things that have gone wrong with it.....

1. at one point the other day, the "3G" logo wasn't there at all, all it said was "AT&T M-Cell" I restarted the device, and was back to normal - so I am not worried about it.....

2. dropped calls like crazy! I cannot talk on the phone longer than 5 minutes without the call failing. It will have a loud screech for 2-3 seconds then it fails.....

3. call quality becomes extremely distorted after a few minutes of talk time, and sounds like the other person is under water. If I stand within 5 ft of it, I am fine, but if I get 20-30 ft away from it (straight view with no concrete walls in the way), it gets distorted. Choppiness also occurs. Also a lag will happen, one time it was around a 5 second lag, now its constant at around 1-2 seconds....even after reseting the device.

4. I think this may have something to do with the fact that my walls are made of concrete, but sometimes the reception goes down all the way down to one bar, then will climb to two or three...then jump back up to five bars.

I don't know what to think here....I am going to call AT&T to see if I can get this resolved, go in-store and possibly get it exchanged, or call time warner cable and see what they can do for me....I think theres too many devices on my network to be honest....3 satellite receivers, 4 computers, vonage and now the microcell.....
 
picked up my unit today. Setup was pretty easy. If all goes well I will getrid of my land line and just use the cell. Which will save me about $300 a year not bad for a device that cost me $100 after rebates.
 
Phoenix Microcell

I picked up a microcell in Gilbert AZ about 2 months ago and it works pretty well. The only complaints I have that is sometimes on incoming calls the caller sounds static almost like they are talking through a tunnel. If I walk closer to the microcell it gets better but I am at 5 bars the entire time. I haven't dropped a single call though and 90 percent of the time it is like talking on a land line. Well worth it in my opinion. If only they could fix the incoming reception problem, which seems only to be affected by the iPhone since the 3 other phones in the house work just fine. Also mine is right under a window so shouldn't be a problem there.
 
Has anybody used a 3G Microcell with a non-3G device, like a first-gen iPhone? I know the name and the marketing materials all talk about 3G this and 3G that, but I'm not familiar enough with the technical side of 3G to know what sort of similarities and differences 2G and 3G phones have for voice connections. Is all the 3G nomenclature marketing speak, or will the device really not work with a 2G phone?
 
elistan said:
Has anybody used a 3G Microcell with a non-3G device, like a first-gen iPhone? I know the name and the marketing materials all talk about 3G this and 3G that, but I'm not familiar enough with the technical side of 3G to know what sort of similarities and differences 2G and 3G phones have for voice connections. Is all the 3G nomenclature marketing speak, or will the device really not work with a 2G phone?
Click to expand...

The MicroCell will not work with a 2G phone. Period. It doesn't output a 2G signal, a 2G phone will not be able to connect to it.
 
rebate

labman said:
picked up my unit today. Setup was pretty easy. If all goes well I will getrid of my land line and just use the cell. Which will save me about $300 a year not bad for a device that cost me $100 after rebates.
Click to expand...
where do you get rebate form? and where could get an external gps antenna?

thanks
 
LESIENA said:
where do you get rebate form? and where could get an external gps antenna?

thanks
Click to expand...

AT&T has the rebate forms $50 discount if you get AT&T internet or U-verses $100 if you sign up for the microcell $20 unlimited plan. you can also Qualify for both. I don't believe there is a external gps option . that works fine for me. just like normal. I have had line noise like other people have mentioned. nothing that I can't live with!
 
qwest - no

After spending 4 hours with ATT support, which was actually fairly knowledgeable, turns out you CANNOT use the microcell with most QWEST modems, especially the Actiontec PK5000 which is widely distributed.

"you can't use a combination modem/router. we assume you first have a modem and then a separate router so you'll have to buy another router, figure out how to configure the PK5000 to be only a modem (we don't know how), figure out how to connect the other router (we don't know how) and then it should work."

Sounds crazy to me.......any suggestions?
 
labman said:
AT&T has the rebate forms $50 discount if you get AT&T internet or U-verses $100 if you sign up for the microcell $20 unlimited plan. you can also Qualify for both. I don't believe there is a external gps option . that works fine for me. just like normal. I have had line noise like other people have mentioned. nothing that I can't live with!
Click to expand...

so what if u do the $20 unlimited plan for the first month just to get the discount and then terminate the $20 plan after the first because u dont need the extra minutes and monthyly charges. doesnt that make it like a $80 rebate?
 
Major disappointment

After three weeks of using it, I am returning the microcell today. Lots of dropped calls, very limited range, etc. I wonder if I got a defective unit, or are there other folks out there who are disappointed in a major way.
 
I also do get the dropped calls. I think it could be the location of the microcell. I'm going to try to move it to a more open area. If I still get the same result I'll try an exchange before I give up on this product.
 
Apple Expert said:
I also do get the dropped calls. I think it could be the location of the microcell. I'm going to try to move it to a more open area. If I still get the same result I'll try an exchange before I give up on this product.
Click to expand...
Do try and move it to a different location. I had problems until I moved it and now the problem seems to be better... for now anyways.
 
jaroth12 said:
so what if u do the $20 unlimited plan for the first month just to get the discount and then terminate the $20 plan after the first because u dont need the extra minutes and monthyly charges. doesnt that make it like a $80 rebate?
Click to expand...

i'm guessing AT&T requires you to have it for a certain period. not sure worth checking out in my case that would be a $130 rebate. $80 + $50 more for signing up to u-verse I will check that one out and get back to you. ;)
 
So it looks like the nationwide rollout is continuing. I just found out that they're available in my area of CA, and saw a recent news article saying that the bay area and NY have them now too.

So far so good. I've got 5 bars in my house now, and 3g data coverage if I turn off my wifi. Call quality seems good, and setup was relatively painless.

I'm curious about the antenna port on the back of the unit. I hadn't heard about that previously, and wonder what kind of antenna you can use, as well as how that improves reception distances. I'm easily getting 50' through a stucco exterior right now, but it would be nice to have a longer range.
 
goins353 said:
Does anyone know if the 3G microcell will work with a wireless internet provider like Clearwire? Thanks!!
Click to expand...

I'm on a wireless internet connection, and am having no problems. VoIP traffic takes up very little bandwidth. The big no-no is satellite internet, but that's because of the latency issues. Wireless doesn't have near the distance to travel.
 
I am very unhappy with mine. When it worked calls would cut out every other word sometimes when people were talking to me.

AT&T tried to blame my Internet since it was only 1.5 Mbps. Already unhappy I reluctantly agreed to upgrade to 20 since the 1.5 was too slow anyway.

Well... It still doesn't work. It now frequently looses connection to AT&T. Right now it's blinking sat and blinking the cell bars but not working. Very fristrated and fed up w AT&T.
 
Got it up and running in Lyons, CO. :D

I do think it's pretty ridiculous that they make me pay extra to basically run my own cell phone tower rather than using one of the AT&T towers. Unfortunately, I don't really have any choice. There's one cell tower in our little town, and it goes out from time to time. My girlfriend and I are both occasionally on-call for the hospital, and we gotta have cell service for that.

Of note, I plugged it into an Airport Express that is not hard-wired to a modem. That seems to work fine.
 
ClimbingNurse said:
Got it up and running in Lyons, CO. :D

I do think it's pretty ridiculous that they make me pay extra to basically run my own cell phone tower rather than using one of the AT&T towers. Unfortunately, I don't really have any choice. There's one cell tower in our little town, and it goes out from time to time. My girlfriend and I are both occasionally on-call for the hospital, and we gotta have cell service for that.

Of note, I plugged it into an Airport Express that is not hard-wired to a modem. That seems to work fine.
Click to expand...

Well getting it up and running is not the problem...it's the quality of the call that is!
 
Question ... i'm thinking about getting the 3g Microcell for my house which has horrible coverage ... but now that the iphone plans charge you for 3g data, if i use 3g data thru the microcell, will this count against my 200mb or 2gb plan?!
 
Fant said:
Question ... i'm thinking about getting the 3g Microcell for my house which has horrible coverage ... but now that the iphone plans charge you for 3g data, if i use 3g data thru the microcell, will this count against my 200mb or 2gb plan?!
Click to expand...

just turn on wifi
 
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