GrumpyPhone.com

After months of testing AT&T has finally made it’s 3G AT&T MicroCell technology available nationwide.  The device is a miniature cell phone tower that allows your phone to connect to it while in your home and routes your telephone calls through your broadband internet connection.  The device should help those that get horrible reception in their home and have a broadband connection but won’t do much to improve their network outside the home or for those without a reliable broadband internet connection.

The device costs $150 for you to have the privilege of helping to improve AT&T’s sub par network (that you are already paying for monthly) with the AT&T MicroCell.  To top it off it still uses your month cell phone minutes when you route calls over it even though it is using the internet connection you already pay for.  You can get unlimited calling through it if you are willing to pay an extra $20 a month.  The device will also only work with 5 phones and requires that you pair each phone with the device so your friends won’t automatically get better signal when they come over without a fairly complicated setup process to add their phone to your AT&T MicroCell.  Also, don’t plan on moving the device to a friend or grandma’s house because the device has a GPS in it so it knows where it is at all times and will only work at your home.

AT&T should be giving this to their customers for free but at least it will offer some relief for customers that are forced to use their network and get terrible service at home.

The announcement was made today in an e-mail sent to subscribers that expressed interest in the AT&T MicroCell on their site.  For more information on the MicroCell you can visit AT&T’s site at http://att.com/3GMicroCell

AT&T MicroCell announcement