[Feyd]

Not looking for:

A different carrier
Your personal opinion on AT&T
Your personal opinion on why you think your carrier is superior
How much you hate Apple
How slow AT&T's network is
How many dropped calls you DON'T get now that you've switched to XXXXXXX
That you think AT&T's 3G coverage is a joke
That you can't believe I'd pay $200.00 to fix something that should already work.


This translates to me not wanting to hear anything except an honest opinion about how well (or not) these microcell's work in their real-world pracical application. As in your phone didn't work in your house at all, and now it works flawlessly. Mostly interested in how they work in multi-story places.

The website says that they really only work in 1 plane (as in 1 story of your home), but has anyone had any direct experience on a 2+ story residence?

TIA

[JayKay335i]

Arent they free?

[ideliver]

I use one. It's in my upstairs bedroom and covers to the basement no problems. It does what you want it to do.

[MCS]

I just picked up my free 3G Microcell 2 days ago and set it up in my home.

Not sure if they're giving it out to everyone or select ppl in poor coverage areas? I wrote a nastygram to ATT about 2 months ago complaining about the cell phone coverage in my area. Received the letter with the free microcell voucher last week.

So far, so good - works as advertised; you can control which phones get hooked up to the microcell.


Previous to microcell - If I was on the phone in the front portion of the house, the cell phone would regularly cut out. ONly if I moved to the back of the house, would I receive adequate signal strength. Now, I'm seeing the microcell bars pretty much all over the house.

[Feyd]

Originally Posted by JayKay335i

Arent they free?

Some people are getting them for free (like my neighbor for instance)... Seems like the majoriety (not sure if all) that are getting them for free are people who have iphone 3GS contracts are about to expire/have expired. Now that Verizon has the iPhone 4 I guess they are trying to retain them as customers.

I've got an iPhone 4 on a fresh'ish contract, but I don't have the time nor desire to fight with them to get one for free.

I experience all that is fail with AT&T, but the determination is that I'm in between two cell towers and that is why I have as many dropped calls as I do. My old 3G was abysmal by comparison and switching up to the 4 helped a bit because it doesn't try to switch towers as actively as the 3G did. All that aside it doesn't change the fact that I live in a 4 story masonry and steel row-house and my reception sucks (will suck) regardless. I've had people in our house with Verizon/T-Mobile/US Cellular, etc... and all experience the same reception issues. So I know for a fact that switching carriers won't help me.



For $200 if it fixes my problem, I'm on it like a fat kid on an M&M.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by Feyd

All that aside it doesn't change the fact that I live in a 4 story masonry and steel row-house and my reception sucks (will suck) regardless. I've had people in our house with Verizon/T-Mobile/US Cellular, etc... and all experience the same reception issues. So I know for a fact that switching carriers won't help me.



For $200 if it fixes my problem, I'm on it like a fat kid on an M&M.

Same here. I need to get one of these.

[JayKay335i]

I hear all it takes is a phone call bitching and they send you the free voucher. They're just trying to retain customers. Its cheeper to keep customers than get new customers.

[Simsims]

so much radiation

[Simsims]

Then again, just FYI

AT&T is moving onto commercial micro cell solutions in the next few years

[JayKay335i]

useless post is useless

[efrazer]

Been using an m-cell for about 8 months now. Haven't really had any problems with it. Once in a while I have to reset it. Mine is located in the basement of my house. I get full coverage on my 2nd floor without and probems. Hope this helps.

[persian54]

got mine for free yesterday

it works fine and I'm in a 2 story home

but i will move it downstairs as no one in my house other than me will give a damn

[ragingclue]

Picking mine up today.

Thanks for reminding me to take care of that, OP.

Hopefully now my phone will actually work at home. As it stands now, I have to leave it in one of two places for it to even reliably get a signal.

[Feyd]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

Picking mine up today.

Thanks for reminding me to take care of that, OP.

Hopefully now my phone will actually work at home. As it stands now, I have to leave it in one of two places for it to even reliably get a signal.

Pretty much how it is here too... I'd go grab one too if I wasn't chained to my desk today.

Make sure you post up your thoughts after you get it up and running.

[Nikki]

So funny I was just googling this like a few hours ago because they have one at the cigar shop I go to and I'm really sick of not getting service in my house. I'm also moving in a month and my new place sucks too for reception.

[gadget]

What number / e-mail can I use to get a free one. Is it just their regular customer service number? or something else?

Thanks,

[JayKay335i]

Originally Posted by gadget

What number / e-mail can I use to get a free one. Is it just their regular customer service number? or something else?

Thanks,

The promotion stopped yesterday.

A day late, a buck short, son.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by gadget

What number / e-mail can I use to get a free one. Is it just their regular customer service number? or something else?

Thanks,

You can call customer service but that was of no help to me. They told me it was my phone's fault. But I can go stand in the middle of the street and still get one bar if I'm lucky. It has been like that for all three phones I've owned while at our new place. They're so full of shit. The only phone that gets halfway decent service in our house is the BB Torch (wife's), but that's only because BB made the reception exceptional on that phone, not because the other phones suck.

So I talked to the AT&T guy we always physically go see about our phones and account at the AT&T store. He said they'd hook us up with one without even hesitating. There's no way I should be paying extra for a device that allows me to get signal in my home when AT&T claims to have full coverage in the area. I was serious today when I told them if they were gonna pull that shit on me, I was just going to cancel my lines and go elsewhere.

[immiketoo]

Same here^^^ I miss many calls here in the house on account of it. Looking into one of these.

[intensee92]

My last place I stayed at had the worst reception ever. Got the microcell and now i'm almost about full bars but not even. This was like almost 6 months ago. Now I have Verizon, which all of a sudden, has been sucking. Must be the iPhone people taking my data lol.

I need to get this for my folks though, they always complainging about dropped calls and such.

[chumley]

They work great and if you can get one for free it's a no-brainer. I got one last year when they weren't so quick to give them away. After multiple calls to CS and our corporate rep I gave up and paid for it though they gave me a $50 usage credit.

I have it centrally located in a fairly open single story floor plan but we get 4-5 bars in most of the house and never less than 3 with iPhones. Never a dropped call and never had to touch it since I plugged it in. Nice online management too - you add numbers you want to be able to use it, everyone else is locked out.

Recently I know of a couple people who got card in the mail offering a free one. Pissed me off since my bill is higher and they never even asked for one. I sent a "you assholes" email to them and they basically gave me a canned corporate response saying they chose people "at random" based on their service location.

Bottom line - if you are committed to AT&T for a couple years or have multiple lines it's worth it even if you pay for it. Throw it on Ebay when you're done and you'll get most of your $$ back.

[Hoyt]

I've had one since they came out. After about 3 or 4 phone calls bitching about the shitty service at my house, inside and out, they gave me one for free. I have yet to have any issues with it. It's never "crashed"... it just always works.

I keep it in my office as its in the center of my house and I get 4-5 bars of service everywhere on my main floor. When I'm in my basement I get around 3-4 bars.

As for performance with voice and data... calls sounds the same as on a normal cell tower, and the calls incoming and outgoing a placed without any lag. Same thing with SMS's... no lag. I've used the data side but not really that much since I rely on my WiFi for that.

So having said all of that... I would highly recommend one of these if you have shitty service within your home.