AT&T planning femtocell trial later this year
by Darren Murph 
posted Nov 1st 2008 at 2:29PM
Say it ain't so! We can only imagine that there are quite a few folks out there who will be absolutely elated to hear this news, so we'll get right to it: a femtocell is (likely) coming to AT&T. Nah, we haven't spied any in the wild shots of a rumored box or anything, but a carrier spokeswoman admitted to Unstrung that "as the nation's leading provider of both wireless and broadband, it makes sense that we would examine the potential benefits of femtocells for our customers." Better still, she continued by affirming that it was "currently doing testing in its labs and a trial [was] planned for later this year." Aside from that, we've no real details to pore over, but all we really needed to know has been said. Sprint and Verizon won't be the only providers offering up an in-home mini cell tower, and we'd say this can't possibly come soon enough for AT&Ters sitting squarely in a fringe coverage area.[Via Brighthand, image courtesy of 3G]
Filed under: Peripherals, ATT, Misc
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mark @ Nov 1st 2008 3:58PM
Sweet mother of God, FINALLY. I'm so tired of telling people that I am, in fact, Superman and my house is made of kriptonyte.
CB17 @ Nov 1st 2008 3:34PM
This is great news! I might finally be able to get service in some of the deeper reaches of my house.
flippykippy @ Nov 1st 2008 5:45PM
I have both sprint and ATT and my 2 ATT phones get not so great coverage, while my 3 sprint ones have excellent coverage. If these aren't free, i'm gonna drop att.
weeeee @ Jan 25th 2009 8:02PM
then do it
frank @ Nov 1st 2008 6:58PM
HotSpot @ Home seemed so cool when it came out. It becomes lamer and lamer as more carriers support femtocells. Although charging a monthly fee to use one isn't exactly cool.
Jamar @ Nov 2nd 2008 7:22AM
Uh, no. The nice thing about Hotspot@Home, you see, is that it's not GPS-locked. I can take it to other countries and not suffer stratospheric roaming rates.
dTang @ Nov 1st 2008 8:29PM
Thank freaking god... its about time. I have to go to my porch to make a call most of the time. its useless in the rest of my house.!!!!
Valicore @ Nov 1st 2008 9:56PM
LOL I love how she tries to make it sound like AT&T is so wonderful for exploring this possibility. I'm sure some of the other "advantages" will be a low monthly fee and "an ability to help increase coverage for you AND your neighbors."
That actually means they'll charge you to better their coverage using your own electricity and broadband. How generous.
Devang @ Nov 2nd 2008 12:55AM
Umm... Hotspot @ Home turns any WiFi router into a "femtocell" and supports hand-offs to T-Mobile's network. And T-mobile only charges $10/month for unlimited wifi calling per line or $20/month for unlimited wifi calling for a family plan. Compare that with Sprint's ungodly number of monthly charges and paying for the femtocell to boot.
If people are actually considering GPS-locked femtocells to be better than Hotspot @ Home, they're idiots. I've used my 6301 (Soon to be a ZN5) with a T-mobile number from Europe and India using wifi. This is about as big a no brainer as it gets.
bernardino @ Nov 2nd 2008 8:41PM
That does sound pretty cool. Does it work with any phone that supports the T-Mobile frequencies and wifi? Like, the G1 for instance?
Devang @ Nov 3rd 2008 1:45AM
You do need a WiFi+UMA phone, which limits you a little if you really need an S60 Nokia and are picky. Otherwise, there are 2 or 3 Blackberries, Nokias, Samsungs, and the ZN5 Motorola that are WiFi+UMA-capable.
The G1 isn't UMA-capable, which is a shame. You can't have everything.
Jon @ Dec 19th 2008 12:50PM
"limits you a little"
It limits you more than a little. You must have a phone that supports H@H. There are no windows mobile H@H phones. To me there is no t-mo phone period worth buying. I am on t-mo for their prices only. I use unlocked phones. A femto does not require a special phone. It broadcasts a regular cell signal.
There are pros and cons to both systems. To me H@H is worthless. When att comes out with these I will switch. People who prefer femtocells are not idiots. People who don't understand the advantages and disadvantages to both are idiots.
keithwwalker @ Nov 2nd 2008 1:16AM
This is wonderful, I never thought I live long enough to see real fembots.
Jeff @ Nov 4th 2008 5:10PM
LO FREAKING L!!!!!!!!!!
DRT @ Nov 2nd 2008 4:57PM
Business Week just did a story on femtocell's, according to them this is a way better deal for the carrier than the customer. We pay them to fix their poor coverage, apparently so...
Veraxus @ Nov 3rd 2008 11:59AM
About fucking time! Or not... considering these aren't available RIGHT NOW. AT&T's coverage is positively HORRENDOUS in my area. At home I get 2-3 bars on a good day - at work, my girlfriends place, or anywhere in between, I'm lucky if I get any coverage at all (voice or data - data especially). I've just sort of resigned myself to texting people since it's rare for me to carry a conversation more than a couple minutes without a dropped call.
So AT&T - HURRY YOUR ASSES UP! I need one... or two... or three of these!
nfinitefx @ Nov 3rd 2008 8:28PM
Yea, I must agree, everywhere I go I get great service with AT&T...except for my girlfriends house where 1-2 bars is the max and sitting at an odd angle by the window really blows. Sign me up for one of these when they come out for testing!
Brian @ Nov 12th 2008 9:18AM
I would also like one of these please. I get 0-2 bars of service in my apartment. And it's not just AT&T, it's every carrier.
I hope you don't need some WiFi capable phone for this, though. And there should not be a monthly fee, just a one-time fee. A monthly fee is ridiculous: you're paying them to NOT fix cell phone coverage every month. At least with the one-time fee I can sell/buy it used.
Roger @ Jan 5th 2009 9:05PM
I will assume that this, as with every other new gadget, it probably wont work with satellite internet?
Scott42444 @ Jan 25th 2009 4:43PM
I cannot believe what it's come to with these @$$holes. Like someone has already mentioned, we will have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to be able to do exactly what we are already paying an arm and a leg for. And, if that isn't bad enough, we get to use our own resources for the cell phone companies to brag about their expanded coverage. Soon, their accountants will tell them that instead of putting up new towers, just charge $200.00 instead of $250.00 so that coverage improves. And, like the cellular addicted sheep that we are, we will be camping out overnight to preorder these. Do we have a choice?