AT&T To Deploy Femtocells aka 3G Microcell Next Week
Many of you will be very happy to hear that AT&T is working to improve their services. A few days ago we reported that AT&T has expanded its 3G coverage, and now we are pleased to announce you that the carrier will be deploying femtocells as soon as next week. Rumors say that the “soft launch” will occur in a few cities like San Antonio, Atlanta, Seattle, and one city in North Carolina with the help of Cisco Systems.
AT&T is the last major carrier in US which doesn’t feature femtocells as both Sprint and Verizon feature 2G CDMA boxes that improve voice call quality within homes. Although it’s been more than a year since we first heard that AT&T is deploying femtocell technology, it seems like the carrier’s subscribers will not have to wait anymore for good data speeds so that they can use their iPhone properly.
At the moment is nothing official as both companies declined to comment on the rumors, however, a statement of an AT&T spokeswoman says that “we will have more news closer to launch” and you know what does this mean, right? It means that there is a launch, and hopefully, AT&T will launch femtocells next week.
via Unstrung
- THIS POST WAS WRITTEN BY:
- Dragos Pirvu
I cannot wait. I absolutely have horrible coverage inside of my house!
Jeremy Cushing
Just tried it. Works great, so long as no 2G/GPRS/GSM phone attempts to enter the microcell’s range. This thing absolutely kills my wife’s Blackberry signal and stops her from calling out. I think this is a MAJOR FLAW – I understand only “repeating” 3G signal, but 2G/GPRS/GSM phones should be unaffected. I shudder to think of these installed in apartment complexes; anyone with an apartment remotely close to someone with one of these will lose all capability of calling out. Even if my wife and I both had 3G phones, guests/visitors with 2G/GPRS/GSM would lose their signal!
BUYER BEWARE.
Regrettably, I am having the same issue. My wife’s Blackberry Curve is pretty much useless when in range of the Microcell. I have a case opened with AT&T, but there has been no progress thus far. All of the reps that I have talked with only seem to be concerned with the “white list”. This of course is a list of phones that can use the Microcell. However, all I get when making outbound calls from the BB is a sit tone and the “call failed” message.