I just got mine today, should I try to reboot it to see if MMS works? Upload speeds are really slow.
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The AT&T 3G MicroCell Owner's Thread
- Thread starter pcguru83
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I just got mine today, should I try to reboot it to see if MMS works? Upload speeds are really slow.
That sorta answers my question.
If you just initialized it, you should have the most current software. Other things to try would be to put your MicroCell in your router's DMZ.
Well I got one of these for free so I thought I'd give it a try.
I do get five bars, that I'll admit, however that's where the positives end!
This thing is a POS! I can't send any data through it so I have to turn on wifi just to send a quick text. If I get too far away from it the voice becomes garbled. Seriously I'm only 20 feet away max!
Because I have to have 3G and wifi on my battery drains a bit faster.
This product would be good if you had no reception but I'll take the four bars of edge over five bars of microcell any day!
I'm just glad I didn't pay for this thing. I'll sell it on craigslist and call it a day.
I do get five bars, that I'll admit, however that's where the positives end!
This thing is a POS! I can't send any data through it so I have to turn on wifi just to send a quick text. If I get too far away from it the voice becomes garbled. Seriously I'm only 20 feet away max!
Because I have to have 3G and wifi on my battery drains a bit faster.
This product would be good if you had no reception but I'll take the four bars of edge over five bars of microcell any day!
I'm just glad I didn't pay for this thing. I'll sell it on craigslist and call it a day.
Why do you have to have wifi on to send a text message? I don't have to do that.
I notice it won't send screenshots but it sends other pic messages.
Yeah I was trying to send a screenshot to my husband to show him how many bars I had w/ the m-cell. I did get a few other pictures to go thru but they took a loooong time.
I tested the upload and download speeds, on wifi upload was much faster... but it still wouldn't send a screenshot.
Overall its a huge improvement tho! 3-5 bars everywhere in my house, 3-4 in the backyard, I can actually make and receive calls w/out them dropping, and I can watch YouTube vids (which I was never able to do at home before).
I should have mentioned that I use textfree.
It uses data to send text messages.
Like I said before, this thing would be great if you had really bad reception however the garbled talk just wasn't working for me.
It just seems like this microcell is not quite ready for prime time. You would think you just plug it in and it would work correctly.
Perhaps the microcell 2 will fix all of the shortcomings of this microcell.
It uses data to send text messages.
Like I said before, this thing would be great if you had really bad reception however the garbled talk just wasn't working for me.
It just seems like this microcell is not quite ready for prime time. You would think you just plug it in and it would work correctly.
Perhaps the microcell 2 will fix all of the shortcomings of this microcell.
Thanks everyone for a really good thread, with helpful info and no insulting stuff!
I have a landline and DSL, Edge reception only for the old expired iPhone contract. This is all around $165 a month. Totally too much.
Was hoping that the MicroCell would allow for a few cheaper scenarios, but, yikes, just too much time and effort for stupid simple phone calls.
Verizon is strongly 3G here. Maybe it would be best to just get a couple of pre-pay V-phones, drop the landline to DSL-only and forget an iPhone 4.
If someone has a similar situation I would be happy to hear how that was handled.
I have a landline and DSL, Edge reception only for the old expired iPhone contract. This is all around $165 a month. Totally too much.
Was hoping that the MicroCell would allow for a few cheaper scenarios, but, yikes, just too much time and effort for stupid simple phone calls.
Verizon is strongly 3G here. Maybe it would be best to just get a couple of pre-pay V-phones, drop the landline to DSL-only and forget an iPhone 4.
If someone has a similar situation I would be happy to hear how that was handled.
Returned mine before my 30 days were up. Couldn't justify $150 for the tower being down when it's going to be fixed in October. At least it's nice enough to go outside to use my phone until then. I did have one problem where I was flatlined bars but said 3G MicroCell and no data would be sent or returned. Hard-restarts to the device and my phone fixed.
I can totally see getting it again if I had a basement I needed reception in. Going in and out of the area worked seemlessly.
I can totally see getting it again if I had a basement I needed reception in. Going in and out of the area worked seemlessly.
Mine seems to be working a lot better after restarting it tonight. I was having problems with my iPhone 4 not connecting to it and when it did I was getting two bars at best. Now that it has been reset I have five full bars, which is what I was having two to three months ago. It seems like the firmware update fixed at least some of the problems. Time will tell...
I have had my Microcell for about a month now and I love it. I have had 0 issues with it and it has not been turned off or reset since the day I set it up. I guess I am the minority here.
Is AT&T switching to a new Rev due to problems?
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/A...ells-be-available-for-sale-again/td-p/1999380
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/A...ells-be-available-for-sale-again/td-p/1999380
after waiting for stock to show up after a couple weeks here in socal i finally got a microcell tonight. set up was a breeze. almost everything works great. phone calls sound great. signal is strong. regular text messages come and go with no problem BUT mms won't go through! i tried sending a pic i had taken via mms but it just sat there. has anyone had any luck with this?
I've had a Microcell for many months now and all I can say is sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I haven't found any way to get them through, like rebooting the Microcell, when they won't send.
Do't be so quick to jump for joy!
You may experience problems much worse than the unability to send MMS in a while.
Here's hoping not but that seems to be the usual trend.
i posted about the mms problem on the att forums and someone replied with this response:
The problem is that AT&T is limiting the 3G upload speeds to 56Kbps (same speed as old dialup modems!) on the Microcell. They won't be able to fix the problem if you call and complain, however, they will note your issue and use it in aggregate with other people's complaints to decide if it's worth fixing. More complaints makes it much more likely this will eventually get fixed.
is this accurate?
The problem is that AT&T is limiting the 3G upload speeds to 56Kbps (same speed as old dialup modems!) on the Microcell. They won't be able to fix the problem if you call and complain, however, they will note your issue and use it in aggregate with other people's complaints to decide if it's worth fixing. More complaints makes it much more likely this will eventually get fixed.
is this accurate?
It is. Try the Speed Test app while connected to the MicroCell. Make sure to turn off WiFi.
I can confirm this as well. I just ran a few speedtests, and the highest I got was 46kbps.
That's a bit of a pisser, but I don't use it for data anyway. If my MicroCell is working, it means my internet is working, which means my wifi is working.
I'm getting ready to file a FCC compliant on this, Mine shuts down every day, and I have to power cycle it to get it working again.
I opened a ticket with 3G M-Cell support. They had me swap my SIM cards, again, after I did that once before. They called me almost right away after the swap to see if it solved the problem. When I said it was too soon to determine that, they called me again the next morning. I couldn't confirm and they said they would call the next day. Instead, they called two hours later and closed the ticket when I was unable to answer the phone. I called to reopen the ticket, asking for a supervisor. They promised to call me back and never did.
I opened a ticket with 3G M-Cell support. They had me swap my SIM cards, again, after I did that once before. They called me almost right away after the swap to see if it solved the problem. When I said it was too soon to determine that, they called me again the next morning. I couldn't confirm and they said they would call the next day. Instead, they called two hours later and closed the ticket when I was unable to answer the phone. I called to reopen the ticket, asking for a supervisor. They promised to call me back and never did.
That was me posting about the 56Kbps cap on the at&t forums that you had quoted ....
Even if you are using WiFi for data, that 56Kbps cap causes other problems:
1) Even background data like location services or visual voicemail can use enough bandwidth to cause stuttering in your voice phone calls, and some people find they have to turn 3G data off in order to make voice calls without stuttering.
2) MMS always goes over 3G data, even if there is WiFi, and as others have noted, it's very slow, and sometimes times out completely because it's so slow.
I strongly suggest anyone with a Microcell call and complain about it, get a case #, hopefully they will realize they need to fix it. The direct number for AT&T's "tier 2/3" tech support is: 866-246-7344
Even if you are using WiFi for data, that 56Kbps cap causes other problems:
1) Even background data like location services or visual voicemail can use enough bandwidth to cause stuttering in your voice phone calls, and some people find they have to turn 3G data off in order to make voice calls without stuttering.
2) MMS always goes over 3G data, even if there is WiFi, and as others have noted, it's very slow, and sometimes times out completely because it's so slow.
I strongly suggest anyone with a Microcell call and complain about it, get a case #, hopefully they will realize they need to fix it. The direct number for AT&T's "tier 2/3" tech support is: 866-246-7344
is this the consensus on what people think is the primary problem with the device?
Seems to mimic what people are saying on this forum:
http://forums.wireless.att.com/t5/AT-T-3G-MicroCell/bd-p/3gmicrocell
Mine is working great for me, but I haven't used MMS since I got it (just something I very rarely use) and I don't use Visual Voicemail (I use Google Voicemail).
There's some speculation that call quality issues are specific to certain regions. I'm in NY and the people I've talked to around here that have MicroCells don't have call quality issues.
There's some speculation that call quality issues are specific to certain regions. I'm in NY and the people I've talked to around here that have MicroCells don't have call quality issues.
I've had mine for about 6 weeks and I'd say I'm about 70% pleased with it. The range of coverage it provides is dramatically less than their website would lead you to believe. Somehow there are random dead spots in the middle of my house but rooms further away from the microcell get coverage. I have my microcell upstairs because that is where my fios router is located so I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but I don't think it should matter.
Call quality is my biggest gripe. Sometimes the call quality is flawless and other times it is garbled.
I'm usually on my wifi network when at home, but I did do some speed tests using the microcells 3g and it is pretty pathetic.
I live in a canyon in Los Angeles that has pretty terrible cell phone coverage from any provider (I've had them all) so the microcell allows me to actually use the service I am paying for. I'm slightly pissed that I paid full price for this thing RIGHT before people started getting them for free.
All in all, it works somewhat as advertised but is still far from perfect.
Call quality is my biggest gripe. Sometimes the call quality is flawless and other times it is garbled.
I'm usually on my wifi network when at home, but I did do some speed tests using the microcells 3g and it is pretty pathetic.
I live in a canyon in Los Angeles that has pretty terrible cell phone coverage from any provider (I've had them all) so the microcell allows me to actually use the service I am paying for. I'm slightly pissed that I paid full price for this thing RIGHT before people started getting them for free.
All in all, it works somewhat as advertised but is still far from perfect.