“Citing an AT&T representative in Charlotte, the report said the femtocell device provides 3.2Mbit/sec 3G service, which is on par with AT&T’s existing towers in areas of ideal service, but not the maximum 7.2MBit/sec speed supported by the iPhone 3GS,” McLean reports. “Of course, most users won’t be using the device’s 3G for data, as they presumably will be using WiFi for that.”
McLean reports, “What the device will do is blanket 5,000 square feet (about a 40 foot radius from the device) of home or office space with excellent voice, text, and data service coverage to prevent dropped calls or delayed messages. SMS messages, like voice calls, require mobile data service and can’t be sent over WiFi. AT&T’s device will support up to four users making simultaneous calls, and up to ten users on 3G standby available for incoming calls and messages.”
More info in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
good for you… doesn’t help me to know that Charlotte is going ahead of my neighborhood!
My iPhone runs on my home wifi network just fine and its paid for, don’t think I need any more AT&T;crap. 3G ends about 15 miles north of the city I live in, apparently if the area you live in is not at least 250,000 you can forget AT&T;3G. I hope Apple goes with multiple providers next year when their AT&T;contract is up for renewal, if not bye-bye iPhone.
Can you trick it into working overseas?
I would love to have my iPhone activate here where I am. I know they check GPS, but is there a way around it?
If I lived in a rural area with bad reception, I’d definitely do it.
Good move by them for once.
about time at&t;does something right. gonna get one the second its available in NYC i will officially have service in my apt something Verizon Sprint Tmobile Nor AT&T;were able to give me before. I cant stand verizon that company can go to hell can u hear me now lol
@ Proud Puppy
Unless I’m mistaken, having one these microcells in your home would provide you with 3G phone service even though there is no 3G tower near you. In my office on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, all cell service is spotty; lots of hills and canyons, and residents with a NIMBY attitude towards cell towers. I get about 1 bar of signal in my office. This little gizmo might be worth it. It’s amazing how many people try the mobile number first, even when they know I’m sitting next to a land line in my office 90% of the time.
Should be sold at cost. I think $99 would be just about right, since buyers are acting as mini celltowers.
someone help me out…. how does the minitower thingy from ATnT get it’s signal to pass on to you? I mean, if there’s no signal to boost…. or if there’s a land line to plug in to….
maybe I need more sleep and less beer, I don’t get this.
Jim it connects to your home router. I believe you have to set the numbers that can access the microcell, so that your neighbor can’t bum off you.
love my iPhone, hate AT&T;(just since they unilaterally eliminated a bucn of “bonus minutes” they’d agreed to give me awhile back). AT&T;lies.
@Anonymous yeah some cell tower, not a lot of range on that 5000 sqft. If you need it you’ll suck it up.
My house is approximate 2 blocks from an AT&T;tower. I get 5 bars without even thinking about it. AT&T;is great!
this thing should be FREE. And if you have a family plan they should take OFF 9.99 a month for each additional line you have.
this is basically allowing people with poor service at home to STAY with or GET AT&T;service. You should not have to PAY for AT&T;’s shortcomings, OR run the risk of increasing your internet traffic beyond limits (where they apply).
Since this will all be data over the internet, and you dont have a router with QoS setup will you drop packets if you are doing heavy torrenting?
Is it firmware upgradeable to the 7.2 throughput? Will we have to buy another model for LTE? I hope Apple builds thus technology into the Airport Extreme/Express.
@Spark,
I’m from your neck of the woods.
Lots of fog up there during the right time of the year, and yes cell service is spotty at best.
You think you should be paying for this? Really? Something like that should be free. You already pay them a RIDICULOUS amount of money for service that should ideally BE EVERYWHERE and you wanna pay MORE for it to work at home? Think about it.
Yeah, and while AT&T;gives away actual hardware devices for free, let’s petition congress to force them to give us free iPhones too. Oh yea, and ponies.
While I dislike cell phone companies with special dis-interest in Verizon, I have to be of sound mind to hammer any of them for coverage. Wireless at best is spotty, expensive, and limited to bandwidth. Yes, we all love to hate them. But we can barely keep our computer equipment up to date- imagine trying a nation with wireless and ever changing technology and software.
-still dislike’em, yet do not want to be them.
This is a great day for those whose home or offices seem to have been built by Faraday.
“femtocell” ?
who thought that name up? sounds like something a woman might keep in her handbag…
It is a SI (metric) prefix, of course, as in:
milli-, micro-, pico-, nano-, femto-, atto-, etc…
Well, if anyone bothered to read the original article, they would have found out that AT&T’s offering is essentially cheapest. While Sprint charges even less ($100) for their device, it comes with a mandatory $10 per month plan, while AT&T costs only an up-front $150. In addition, neither Sprint, nor Verizon offers 3G on their devices; instead, they use old, 2G CDMA2000 for data traffic and SMS, which is important, since almost none of Verizon’s phones can do WiFi, and therefore has to rely on that crappy 2G data service.
This will be the most effective way for iPhone owners to get AT&T in places where they spend a lot of time, and where previously there was none.
Wow, for once AT&T;doesn’t make a moneygrab with a monthly fee. I would consider this just because reception inside my house is so spotty.
Hell, I’d pay $300 if I could get it in Colorado right now.