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The AT&T 3G MicroCell Owner's Thread

audiomixer said:
Since I have done the complete restore and setup from scratch, I have had no problems with the microcell and iphone 4.
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Do you think it was just a coincidence? I might give this a try. I was on the phone with AT&T for about an hour and a half today. My phone dropped the call twice so I had to get my brothers phone (iPhone 4). It was also doing the same thing with the garbled nonsense over and over again. It was terrible. They opened a ticket for engineering and they are going to go from there. This problem is horrible.

While on the phone, it had full 5 bars and then towards the end, it dropped to none. As soon as I hung up, it went to searching, no signal and then came back to showing no bars and NO mcell. Few seconds later, it was back on mcell and full 5 bars.

Makes no damn sense.
 
S1njin said:
I suppose its possible that the Microcell's first priority is call improvement ... that's certainly what they pitch on the Microcell pages on ATTs website. Calls, calls, calls, oih and it does Data too.

Who knows ....
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I've been pretty lucky I suppose, I had no real issues with my Microcell since I got it. Had an iPhone 3G connected and now my iPhone 4 along with several 3G Nokia phones, no voice problems at all.

The only problem I experienced was slow data transfer but, after some research I was able to resolve that. Basically opening up some UDP ports on my router to the Microcell worked.

There are some threads on the AT&T forums with those ports you may want to try, it could help. Some said this has also fixed there call garbling issues. I guess it depends on your hardware and settings. I doubt there are many defective Microcell units.
 
RMXO said:
Good idea. Gonna try again tomorrow. Any tips?
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State your case, have an answer at the ready and tell them you like being their customer but they are making it very difficult for you and you will not have a choice in leaving if they do not get it fixed.

I received another $80 dollar credit today. I asked them to cover the cost of the microcell as I thought that was fair (this was after about an hour of tech support) and after some hold time, he came back and said they could only do $80. I said sure. They also stated if no resolution was found to call back in and they would see what they could do for me.

It's all in who you get and how the conversation goes. Be sympathetic, don't demand anything. Just state your frustrations and the fact that you paid for the device that is clearly not working for you.

Good luck! :cool:
 
I'm at the ATT store right now waiting to get my M-Cell replaced. Hopefully the new one will function better for me.
 
AbSoluTc said:
State your case, have an answer at the ready and tell them you like being their customer but they are making it very difficult for you and you will not have a choice in leaving if they do not get it fixed.

I received another $80 dollar credit today. I asked them to cover the cost of the microcell as I thought that was fair (this was after about an hour of tech support) and after some hold time, he came back and said they could only do $80. I said sure. They also stated if no resolution was found to call back in and they would see what they could do for me.

It's all in who you get and how the conversation goes. Be sympathetic, don't demand anything. Just state your frustrations and the fact that you paid for the device that is clearly not working for you.

Good luck! :cool:
Click to expand...

ok, thanks.
 
Well, have had so many problems today and last night that I just unplugged the damn thing. Now I can actually make/receive calls that aren't from another world. Even though I am showing half a bar, calls and txt's go through without an issue.

I think I know what might be causing the problem. Someone mentioned it in this thread earlier I believe...

I can get signal where I am but it's not the best, half/1 bar. With the Mcell, I get full bars. What I'm thinking is when I am in an area that can connect to a tower, the Mcell is fighting that and they are going back and forth. The tower wants to take over but the Mcell won't allow it and vice versa. Why do I say this? Well, I noticed after being on a call, my bars drop to nothing. As I hang up the call, my phone switches off the Mcell and shows just half a bar as if I was connected to the tower. A few seconds later, the Mcell kicks in and a full 5 bars and Mcell shows on my phone. This is the only thing I can come up with that makes any sense.

I guess the only way to really test it is by moving to a location that gets NO SERVICE and then turn on the Mcell and see how it goes. That would mean the phone would ONLY be working on the Mcell and no competing tower signals to interfere.

Again, it's just so bad I turned the Mcell off and will not use it until I hear something back from AT&T.
 
Thats interesting .. anyone else notice if they have reduced bars after talking on call via microcell for awhile?
 
A Level 2 engineer from AT&T FINALLY CALLED ME BACK TODAY!!

It looks like a lot of the problems people have could be related to the MTU setting on your router as well as the blocking of fragmented packets.

He told me the Surfboard modems are not good for this. He recommended plugging the micro cell into my router, and changing those settings ON the router itself. So I need to do some research to figure out how to change these on the airport.

:)

http://www.wireless.att.com/media/en_US/swf/3Gmicrocell/ATT3GMicroCell-Troubleshooting.pdf
 
I live in N.W. Los Angeles (zip code 93065) and it's pretty hilly here. I wasn't mad at AT&T for the fact that I got 0-1 bars inside my house because I'm surrounded by hills and get 3-4 in my driveway.

So.. figured I'd get the MCell. At first I was really excited because I instantly got 5 bars inside the house. However, I've discovered that I constantly drop calls when they last over 5 minutes. I dropped one call 3x inside of 30 minutes.

Currently I'm very disappointed with the product. My net is very strong (20+ down, 1.5+ up) so they can't blame it on that. I have a brand new Netgear router that supposedly works well with AT&T. I'm hoping it's just growing pains and the product will improve over time.
 
I was on the phone for about an hour and a half a few minutes ago with AT&T tech support with the issues I am having with my phones. In his research, we found that while my phones were showing connected to the Microcell, they were showing connection to the TOWERS. They were showing this because we had a total of 15 dropped calls today within a span of 1 hour. All while connected to the Microcell - or so we thought.

The tech guy even said that our phones should not be getting a tower ID when connected to a Microcell and said that was strange. It only confirms what I thought was going on. The phones/tower/microcell are all fighting each other. The Microcell wants the phones, the tower wants the phones. Back and forth they go.

I hope AT&T realizes this and resolves it. Our phones should NOT be connecting to a tower when I am standing 3 feet from a Microcell. That's not right.
 
AbSoluTc said:
I was on the phone for about an hour and a half a few minutes ago with AT&T tech support with the issues I am having with my phones. In his research, we found that while my phones were showing connected to the Microcell, they were showing connection to the TOWERS. They were showing this because we had a total of 15 dropped calls today within a span of 1 hour. All while connected to the Microcell - or so we thought.

The tech guy even said that our phones should not be getting a tower ID when connected to a Microcell and said that was strange. It only confirms what I thought was going on. The phones/tower/microcell are all fighting each other. The Microcell wants the phones, the tower wants the phones. Back and forth they go.

I hope AT&T realizes this and resolves it. Our phones should NOT be connecting to a tower when I am standing 3 feet from a Microcell. That's not right.
Click to expand...
Keep us updated please.
 
AT&T 3G Microcell - Really Bad Flaw

Ok - I have been having major problems with my AT&T Mcell ever since I bought it. The first one I hooked up and connected had issues with garbled voices sounding like I was going down the road at 100 miles an hour over hundreds of speed bumps. I could only get every other word or so. I also experienced dropped calls/no calls. On top of that, before a call I would have 4 bars and Mcell connection. During a call, my bars dropped to 1. After a call, the Mcell logo would vanish and it would say 1 bar AT&T. A few seconds later, it would go to searching and then back to 1 bar AT&T. Then Mcell would show back up and 4 bars.

I have been working with AT&T for the past 3 days. Today I had dropped about 15 calls within 1 hours on 3 different phones. All connected to the Mcell. Two are iPhone 4's and 2 are LG Shine's. The LG phones never had a problem before this. After some frustrations this afternoon, I unplugged the damn thing and I was able to make calls without any issues. I called AT&T and had an hour and a half long conversation with a nice supervisor about the problem. He updated my ticket and said he would keep in contact about the progress. He was really nice.

An hour or two later..

A nice lady from AT&T called me back and asked me if I had unregistered my Microcell and re-registered it. I told her not since it was installed. Long story short, we did that. My phone did not connect while I was talking to her so she said she would call me back. My phone connected to the Mcell and I received her call back. Full 5 bars at the start. As the conversation progressed - 5-8 minutes, all bars vanished. She updated my ticket and said she would keep in touch and contact me with any updates.

After hanging up, my call switched to 1 bar and AT&T - NO MCELL connection on my screen. It dropped that. Then it went to Searching and back to 1 bar and AT&T. A few seconds later, 4 bars and Mcell. Placing my phone right next to the Mcell while on a call I get 1 bar. That's it.

After all that, in order for me to get a full 5 bars, I have to go within 5 feet of the Mcell.


Now - I tested my phone fighting with the tower/mcell theory. We have 1 room downstairs in our house that gets NO SERVICE period. I made sure my phone had Mcell and a full 4 bars. I go into this room, shut the door and stand there. I make a call. I have a full 5 bars. After 5 minutes, I still have 5 bars. Call quality is superb. After 5 minutes, I leave the room and head back over to my desk, put the phone down on the desk and within 2 minutes, the bars drop. First 2, then 3 and then I only have 1. As soon as I hang up, repeat the issue in the above paragraph.

So, just for fun - I again, have full 5 bars and Mcell. I went back in the room, made a call and no problems. All 5 bars lit up nice and strong. I leave the phone on a table and leave the call going. At 5 minutes the phone is still connected, full 5 bars and call quality is great. After 11 minutes, the call is still connected and still has a full 5 bars. No issues. I hung up the phone after that.

This tells me that the tower/mcell are fighting for the phones connection or something along those lines. If that's not it, I have no idea what to think then. It's the only thing that makes sense!

Anyone else?

EDIT - I have FIOS - 35Mbps up/down. No throttle. This is the SECOND Mcell with the SAME issue.
 
Update

A nice lady from AT&T called me back and asked me if I had unregistered my Microcell and re-registered it. I told her not since it was installed. Long story short, we did that. My phone did not connect while I was talking to her so she said she would call me back. My phone connected to the Mcell and I received her call back. Full 5 bars at the start. As the conversation progressed - 5-8 minutes, all bars vanished. She updated my ticket and said she would keep in touch and contact me with any updates.

After hanging up, my call switched to 1 bar and AT&T - NO MCELL connection on my screen. It dropped that. Then it went to Searching and back to 1 bar and AT&T. A few seconds later, 4 bars and Mcell. Placing my phone right next to the Mcell while on a call I get 1 bar. That's it.

After all that, in order for me to get a full 5 bars, I have to go within 5 feet of the Mcell.


Now - I tested my phone fighting with the tower/mcell theory. We have 1 room downstairs in our house that gets NO SERVICE period. I made sure my phone had Mcell and a full 4 bars. I go into this room, shut the door and stand there. I make a call. I have a full 5 bars. After 5 minutes, I still have 5 bars. Call quality is superb. After 5 minutes, I leave the room and head back over to my desk, put the phone down on the desk and within 2 minutes, the bars drop. First 2, then 3 and then I only have 1. As soon as I hang up, repeat the issue in the above paragraph.

So, just for fun - I again, have full 5 bars and Mcell. I went back in the room, made a call and no problems. All 5 bars lit up nice and strong. I leave the phone on a table and leave the call going. At 5 minutes the phone is still connected, full 5 bars and call quality is great. After 11 minutes, the call is still connected and still has a full 5 bars. No issues. I hung up the phone after that.

This tells me that the tower/mcell are fighting for the phones connection or something along those lines. If that's not it, I have no idea what to think then. It's the only thing that makes sense!

I also started a separate thread here - https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=10483017
 
Perhaps it was just a bad Microcell unit

or you are holding your phones wrong :p
 
draz said:
Perhaps it was just a bad Microcell unit

or you are holding your phones wrong :p
Click to expand...

First unit, same issue. Second unit, same issue. Holding the phone or putting the phone down, no difference.

The AT&T rep (both) did ask if I had a bumper on and told me about the Apple "reception issue and fix". Lol.
 
Have you tried moving it to a totally different location several feet away from where it currently is?

Could be some sort of interference


(just throwing out ideas here.... not sure on a solution)
 
FYI - My Mcell will act this way on my iphone 4 if I am two rooms away from it and not holding it "correctly". as long as I am within about 20 ft of the unit I have no problems. My house is an "open" floor plan so most of the time it isn't having to go through many walls.
 
Ive noticed the garbled calls too...but only with the iPhone 4. I was afraid it was the phone, but hopefully it is the microcell...I might have to give ATT a call
 
Is anyone in your house watching porn on the internet at the same time?

Surprise bust into every room in the house before you test this to be sure.
 
that's weird, I bought my brother's family a microcell for his bday and he said it works perfectly and that it's the best thing he's ever gotten.

Either way, good luck with it! I'm so thankful I live in a place where I get 5 bars constantly wihtout any accessories.
 
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