Micro Cell

mikester · 12-06-2010, 05:36 PM

Anyone have one of these in their house? I'm thinking of cracking down on AT&T's crappy service at my house. I have terrible service here - the only solution that I am aware of is a microcell - they actually charge for it but my understanding is that if you complain enough you can wrangle one out of them.

It's either that or they let me out of my contract and allow me to move to Verizon.

Unfortunately I don't particularly care for the verizon phone options but...whatever I'm not there yet.

I'm a little concerned about additional radiation of a microcell but I'm not even sure what that really is. I'm gonna hit google...

crustychief · crustychief's Garage

I was thinking of getting one as well. I guess it is just a repeater. The base had a big one at the Miramar air show right next to our booth and I still only had two bars on my phone though.

TimT · 12-06-2010, 06:05 PM

I live just outside of NYC, and need what Verizon calls a "network extender" which is really a mini cell tower in my house..

My house is basically a Faraday Cage.... Stucco exterior... reinforced with expanded lath... I can walk from outside my house and have 5 bar signal strength.. to inside my house and have 0-1 bar signal strength

I tried to use the "Can you hear me now" on Verizon...ended up getting the network extender for $200 with a $100 rebate..

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I have one. I got it on Craigslist for $70, works perfectly. I live less than a mile from two different AT&T towers and my house is a total dead zone. I hate AT&T with a passion now. I complained many times, asked them to comp me a microcell, no dice. As soon as Verizon gets the iPhone and my AT&T contract is up, bye bye.

968rz · 968rz's Garage

Go figure.

'AT&T is now the worst carrier' - Consumer Reports - Dec. 6, 2010

campbellcj · 08:47 PM

We have one. It was a bit flaky for the first couple months but I finally got some alert emails saying it was losing its GPS signal (it can only be used in a registered and authorized location). Once I moved it really close to a window, it's been solid. We live in a canyon where any kind of RF signals are weak or non-existent and there are no towers in the canyon or likely to ever go up, so this is a good option for our situation.

Since it works off of your internet connection, you need to have a decent one. We're on Time Warner Cable for that and also use their phone service for the house line.

jyl · jyl's Garage

I was going to get one. Constant dropped calls at my office, right smack in the middle of downtown Portland. But ATT apparently fixed that coverage hole, no more dropped calls. Around town, I notice some general improvement in coverage - speed and drops.

Still, ATT's service has deteriorated so much in the past two years. Yeah, I know the iPhone has hugely increased the demand on their network, but they should have kept up with the upgrades.

When VZ gets the iPhone, there will be a stampede of people dumping ATT as soon as their contracts are up, if not earlier.

campbellcj · 12-06-2010, 08:55 PM

I'm no AT&T fan boy and have had many moments of aggravation, but I find it amusing that people who aren't on Verizon have such as "grass is greener" viewpoint. ALL the carriers have coverage holes and technical strengths/weaknesses. (I have both AT&T and Verizon USB modems for this reason.) I betcha Verizon won't be smelling quite as rosy once a few million iPhones and iPads hit their network. Their data plan policies (quotas) are just as awful if not worse than AT&T's, too. 5GB a month is a joke for any road warriors in the tech or media fields.

Gogar · 12-06-2010, 09:01 PM

There's a dead spot about a block from my house and I used the ATT "Mark the Spot" app on my phone every day for a month or so, hoping they would check it out.

Anyway it's still there.

mikester · 12-06-2010, 09:12 PM

I used to have both a Verizon and AT&T phone (iPhone) I rarely in this area lost calls on the Verizon phone.

Now that I am on the road a bit more this service that I used to be okay with from AT&T is boarder line unacceptable.

The only thing that makes it acceptable is the tolerance I get from my coworkers and colleagues because they have iPhones as well.

At home, I have almost zero coverage though and it did not used to be like that. My wife has the phone I used to have, my 3gS and she has problems as well - we did not used to have problems at home but for some reason now we do. Not sure why.

KaptKaos · 12-06-2010, 09:13 PM

My friend Jim has one. He's in Playa and had no coverage at home. He loves it.

911Freak · 12-06-2010, 11:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KaptKaos

My friend Jim has one. He's in Playa and had no coverage at home. He loves it.

Yep, serious dead zones for both AT&T and Verizon here in Playa, one would think being so close to LAX we would have decent signals, but nope! It's much worse for AT&T here but Verizon is hit and miss as well (data isn't as bad as the calls tho).

Once Verizon gets the iPhone we'll get 2 of them (we we're really trying not to cave and get an iPhone but..oh hell never mind, wrong thread)

Ronbo · 12-07-2010, 03:35 PM

My house gets little to no cell reception, and the MicroCell has given us reliable coverage. We recouped the cost through savings from dumping our land line.