AT&T 3G MicroCell Rollout Begins Mid-April

AT&T 3G MicroCell nationwide rollout begins in mid-April

Dead spots and connectivity issues in the home could be a thing of the
past for some U.S. iPhone users next month, when AT&T begins the formal
nationwide rollout of its 3G MicroCell service.

AT&T, the exclusive carrier of Apple's iPhone in the U.S., announced
Wednesday that it would begin the national rollout of the 3G MicroCell
in mid-April. New markets will be activated in cities across the
continental U.S. over the next several months, the company said.

The nation's second-largest wireless provider revealed that there will
be no additional costs, other than the purchase of the 3G MicroCell
device, for using the 3G MicroCell service, as minutes used through the
hardware affect the account of the phone making the call. Individual or
Family talk subscribers can pay $19.99 per month to make unlimited calls
through the special femtocell hardware device.

The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan. In
addition, customers who purchase a new line of broadband service with
AT&T are also eligible for a $50 mail-in rebate. Those who select both
could receive the hardware for free.

The hardware blankets a 5,000 square foot area, about a 40 foot radius
from the device, to provide voice, data and text service coverage in
areas that might otherwise be a "dead zone" for cell phone reception.
The hardware supports up to four users making simultaneous calls, and up
to 10 on 3G standby available for incoming calls and messages.

more here...

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...ell_nationwide
_rollout_begins_in_mid_april.html

and here:

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/why/3gmicrocell/

In article
<apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-000-000-000.static.ge.com>, Oxford
<apony@pasture.com> wrote:

> The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
> in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan.

at&t should be giving these things away to lessen the load on their
network.

Oxford <apony@pasture.com> wrote in news:apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-
000-000-000.static.ge.com:

> AT&T 3G MicroCell nationwide rollout begins in mid-April
>

AT&T - 3G service in a 4G world.....

Tell them they can use my slogan for free....open source.

Open Google Earth and center the USA on its globe. There, now you have an
accurate AT&T 4G map with NO BLUE SPOTS.

How stupid to waste resources putting up repeaters for old technology.



--
"iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"

Larry

On 25/03/10 5:35 AM, nospam wrote:
> In article
> <apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-000-000-000.static.ge.com>, Oxford
> <apony@pasture.com> wrote:
>
>> The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
>> in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan.
>
> at&t should be giving these things away to lessen the load on their
> network.

You have to use your own broadband service for _their_ femtocell. It
takes chutzpah to charge you for that.

AT&T is desperately still trying to roll out their 3G network on the
cheap, and recover from Verizon's "there's a map for that" campaign,
while Verizon is deploying their 4G network.

OTOH, if Verizon had taken the iPhone, when offered to them, it would
probably be Verizon rolling out the femtocells in a desperate attempt to
unclog their network.

In my town we have terrible AT&T coverage in the hilly parts of town.
The only carrier that works in those areas is Verizon. But the city
changed a law, and now carriers are allowed to put in new towers in
public parks if there are no commercial sites available (the lack of
commercial areas is a problem in the areas with no coverage). So far no
carriers have applied to install towers in the parks to fix their
coverage holes, and none have been installed. They just don't want to
spend the time and money to cover the areas with no coverage. The entire
San Francisco Bay Area has similar issues--all four carriers have decent
coverage in urban core areas and flat suburban areas, but when you go
out to hills and valleys outside the core you have only Verizon.

Yawn.

16 months after Verizon and Sprint released their femtocells.

The AT&T femtocell is 3G only, so GSM phones won't work with it. All CDMA
phones work with Verizon femtocells.

You have to register the AT&T femtocell with your location before you can
use it. The only "registration" of a Verizon femtocell to any Verizon
service is simply to add the femtocell management page to your My Verizon
web page. Verizon femtocells are completely plug-and-play.

You must re-register the AT&T femtocell every time you move it to another
location. Unlike Verizon, AT&T isn't intelligent enough to figure how
where to dispatch 911 calls using the femtocell GPS.

There is no option to allow phones other than than those in the femtocell
authorized user list to use the femtocell; nor is it provision to allow
roaming access (e.g., overseas carriers) on the femtocell. This means
that, unlike the Verizon and Sprint femotocells, a building owner can't
install one to improve mobile phone coverage inside the building.

Verizon's ongoing build up of its network is rapidly making femtocells
unnecessary and obsolete.

AT&T, behind the curve as always.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

SMS <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in news:4bacbeb7$0$1674
$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net:

> So far no
> carriers have applied to install towers in the parks to fix their
> coverage holes, and none have been installed. They just don't want to
> spend the time and money to cover the areas with no coverage. The
entire
> San Francisco Bay Area has similar issues--all four carriers have
decent
> coverage in urban core areas and flat suburban areas, but when you go
> out to hills and valleys outside the core you have only Verizon.
>

http://sem.keynote.com/keynote/sem_m...N_Branding.jsp

These guys do the proof of performance testing for the big carriers, as
bragged about on the page.

The carriers know damned well where the horrible coverage areas are but
the FCC doesn't do its job to FORCE them to do something about it.

So, customers across the country suffer from the FCC not doing its
enforcement job....



--
"iPad is to computing what Etch-A-Sketch is to art!"

Larry

"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
news:4bacbeb7$0$1674$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
> On 25/03/10 5:35 AM, nospam wrote:
>> In article
>> <apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-000-000-000.static.ge.com>, Oxford
>> <apony@pasture.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
>>> in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan.
>>
>> at&t should be giving these things away to lessen the load on their
>> network.
>
> You have to use your own broadband service for _their_ femtocell. It takes
> chutzpah to charge you for that.


Why? AT&T still has to pay the termination fee on the "unlimited" calls
they offer through the femto. It's not like there's no cost to them.


> AT&T is desperately still trying to roll out their 3G network on the
> cheap, and recover from Verizon's "there's a map for that" campaign, while
> Verizon is deploying their 4G network.
>
> OTOH, if Verizon had taken the iPhone, when offered to them, it would
> probably be Verizon rolling out the femtocells in a desperate attempt to
> unclog their network.
>
> In my town we have terrible AT&T coverage in the hilly parts of town. The
> only carrier that works in those areas is Verizon. But the city changed a
> law, and now carriers are allowed to put in new towers in public parks if
> there are no commercial sites available (the lack of commercial areas is a
> problem in the areas with no coverage). So far no carriers have applied to
> install towers in the parks to fix their coverage holes, and none have
> been installed. They just don't want to spend the time and money to cover
> the areas with no coverage.

I'll wager it's not the money; they're afraid of dealing with the
tinfoil-hat NIMBY crowd. You can pass all the laws in the world that allow
companies to build towers in parks, playgrounds, and schools, but God help
the company that actually does it and has to deal with the ensuing protests
from well meaning soccer moms with too much time on their hands.

> The entire San Francisco Bay Area has similar issues--all four carriers
> have decent coverage in urban core areas and flat suburban areas, but when
> you go out to hills and valleys outside the core you have only Verizon.

Last time I was out there (two summers ago) I found AT&T (800MHz "Blue"
system) GSM coverage adequate, though my T-Mobile (1900MHz "Orange" system)
service was very spotty outside of town. I didn't have any Verizon service
at the time to directly compare.

On 26/03/10 5:21 PM, Larry wrote:

<snip>

> The carriers know damned well where the horrible coverage areas are but
> the FCC doesn't do its job to FORCE them to do something about it.

It's worse than that. When the FCC permitted analog to be turned off,
the rule was that it could only be turned off if there was digital
coverage available to replace it. Of course the carriers and the FCC
ignored this rule. Now there are vast areas around me that went from
AMPS-only coverage to no coverage at all. These are rural areas, often
up in the mountains, sometimes far from roads, but they did have
coverage before AMPS was turned off.

On 26/03/10 6:33 PM, Todd Allcock wrote:

> I'll wager it's not the money; they're afraid of dealing with the
> tinfoil-hat NIMBY crowd.

They have a lot of experience dealing with that crowd. They know how to
do it.

Personally I hate the idea of putting up towers in parks, just because
they look terrible, even when disguised. Maybe if I had AT&T, Sprint, or
T-Mobile I'd think different.

In message <6gdrn.31145$EE6.29703@newsfe23.iad> "Todd Allcock"
<elecconnec@AnoOspamL.com> was claimed to have wrote:

>
>"SMS" <scharf.steven@geemail.com> wrote in message
>news:4bacbeb7$0$1674$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net...
>> On 25/03/10 5:35 AM, nospam wrote:
>>> In article
>>> <apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-000-000-000.static.ge.com>, Oxford
>>> <apony@pasture.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
>>>> in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan.
>>>
>>> at&t should be giving these things away to lessen the load on their
>>> network.
>>
>> You have to use your own broadband service for _their_ femtocell. It takes
>> chutzpah to charge you for that.
>
>
>Why? AT&T still has to pay the termination fee on the "unlimited" calls
>they offer through the femto. It's not like there's no cost to them.

True, but we're not talking about offering free calling here, or at
least we don't have to be, that's not their only benefit to the consumer
or the carrier. Just taking into account the fact that AT&T has
admitted to delivering piss-poor performance in many areas makes it seem
like perhaps they should make femtocells free in exchange for users
continuing to pay their existing monthly bills.

What really annoys me is that only the owner of the hardware will
benefit from their current femtocell. I want anyone visiting me to be
able to make calls without having to preregister anything and I want to
have better service when I visit someone who has a femtocell.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:35:33 -0400, nospam <nospam@nospam.invalid> wrote:

> In article
> <apony-F017E7.01422225032010@n003-000-000-000.static.ge.com>, Oxford
> <apony@pasture.com> wrote:
>
>> The 3G MicroCell hardware will cost $149.99, but comes with a $100 mail
>> in rebate for customers who select a MicroCell calling plan.
>
> at&t should be giving these things away to lessen the load on their
> network.

Heck, there's no *revenue stream* in that business model.
No revenue stream? -- No dice! That's at&t's strategy :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP