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“‘In certain situations, where you have really bad coverage in your home, we will give it to you as a retention tool,’ Paget Alves, Sprint business markets group president, said in an interview. AT&T Inc. said it has given away the towers, known as femtocells, to some customers to test pricing models and Verizon Wireless said it doesn’t offer them for free,” Bensinger reports.
“Sprint, the third-largest U.S. mobile-phone carrier, and larger rivals AT&T and Verizon Wireless are seeking ways to add capacity as customers increasingly use mobile phones to surf the Web and watch video clips, boosting network traffic,” Bensinger reports. “AT&T, the exclusive U.S. carrier for Apple Inc.’s iPhone, has faced criticism for dropped calls since the first version of the device debuted three years ago.”
Bensinger reports, “Verizon Wireless’s Coverage Extender costs $249.99. Dallas- based AT&T’s 3G MicroCell costs $149.99, though the carrier has offered mail-in rebates in some states for limited time periods. Sprint’s Airave femtocell, currently priced at $99.99 with a plan, covers 5,000 square feet, according to the Overland Park, Kansas-based carrier’s website. The carriers don’t disclose femtocell sales.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
AT&T is also giving away free Microcells as well already. I know – I got one for free and other family members have too. We live in areas where cell reception is miserable inside our house living up in the hills Los Angeles but just a few miles from unfettered unhilly reception. So my guess is they are giving them away to those most in need of just getting basic service while at home. This is waaaay over due.
I’ve had my free 3G microcell since July. Works great. Plus ATT gave me a $20 Amazon gift certificate for answering a survey about my use of it. By the way I told them that while I love it, I would never ever pay $150 for it
I will never spend money on a femtocell and simply do not understand why the devices aren’t loaned out for free. So I should pay upwards of $100 for the privilege of lowering the load on your network and diverting it to my broadband service (which, I might add, I also pay for)? No. No ****ing way. If your answer to crappy service is for me to do all the work, you pay me, or at least put the device in my home for free.
——RM
Watch how fast these things get tossed aside once ISPs start charging for tiered bandwidth.
For the telco’s to SELL someone a product and charge a monthly fee for it in order to cover the shortcomings of their own networks is criminal.
Let us not forget, unlike AT&T, where you get (or buy) their MicroCell, and use is as if it were an ordinary tower, with Sprint, you have to sign a contract and pay $5 per month for the privilege of relieving pressure on Sprint’s network by providing your own tower!!!
I can see how they would want to sell these devices in order to make some money from people who don’t get any coverage at home. But the nerve to actually charge them a monthly fee, so that they can actually use what they’re already paying for (not to mention offload traffic from Sprint’s network to customer’s own, for which he is paying another monthly fee)!!!
I’m amazed at how they get to sell even a single one! Who are the people who actually buy these things and take this abuse???
AirPort Express Base Station is $99.00. Apple could drop the audio and USB features and add a receiving 3G or 4G to it for total price less than the $100 of these sorry service clowns.
Apple could really excite everyone with one for the car. Manufacturers could put it in their cars without the case and AC to DC hardware for about $50 or $70.
Come on Steve Jobs, TAKE THIS MARKET TOO!
Mobile carriers need to add capacity by building bigger, better networks!!! Duuuhhh!!!
Jersey_Trader:
How exactly would one hook up a femtocell tower to the wired Ethernet port in a car? In order for the femtocell to work, you need a broadband internet connection (ADSL, cable, fibre optic, satellite etc — a wired hookup).
On second reading, I have an impression that you are talking about a functionality currently provided by MiFi and similar devices, which connect to the internet via 3G mobile networks using standard $70 data plan, and work as a WiFi router.
I say, go with Line2 or another VOIP service and softphone on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, and your computer and start weaning yourself from the cell phone.
I can see myself relying more on my iPad for telephone connections over VOIP when 4.2 arrives. I am already saving myself about $40 per month by getting rid of my land line and using VOIP. I can see the potential of getting rid of my cell phone, or reducing my minutes, when VOIP over cellular data matures just a little more – come on iOS4.2.
I would love to see Apple use of few billion of its cash to buy, and then expand, Clearwire WiMax to cover the whole US, and in the process make cellular telephony obsolete through VOIP telephony with FaceTime.
Is it just me, or is the name Femtocell totally stupid? I propose a fix: let’s just call these thingies a – get ready –
Fembot
There. I feel much better now.
This is old news. I’ve had my AirRave for over a year that was given to me free of charge due to poor service in my house. Since then I have instructed other with success in getting for nothing as well. Some even fared better than I, since they got the $5 per month fee waived.
Now don’t get me started on the monthly charge. In reality nothing is free if you are paying $5 a month for it. It’s funny how the carriers will pay out big buck to put towers all over the place, but are willing to charge you to put one in your house.
Still in all with the $5 a month charge I am still $100 less per month than Verizon or AT&T. For now I will have to settle for a fake iPhone if I am saving $1200.00 a year. (While I keep my fingers crossed that Sprint gets it in 2011.)
@ET
I cut my landlines about 7 years ago, so I guess I’m an unwired pioneer.
At the time, I had 2 phone lines (voice and data/fax), DSL and cable TV. I cut all the phone lines and DSL, got cable Internet, a cell phone and started using eFAX. I even ditched the fax machine. Last year I cut cable TV.
In my design work, unfortunately I still need fax for tradespeople still stuck in the last century… or is it the 19th century? I’d cut that in a New York minute, if I could.