AT&T 3G Microcell Now Widely Available, Verizon Asset Purchase Complete

From DailyTech: AT&T is notorious for poor service quality in some of its service areas. While poor reception might be forgivable in mostly rural areas where the environment makes cellular towers hard to install and cuts range, some of AT&T's highly publicized network issues are in major cities.

In September of 2009, an Apple Genius in a store in New York City famously told a customer that 30% dropped calls were normal. AT&T knows that reception can be an issue in some areas and is making efforts to fix the network. One of the ways that AT&T hopes to improve the network for customers is by getting users to adopt femcells.

The AT&T Microcell femtocell is now available to any AT&T customer. The Microcell takes the user's mobile phone call and routes it across their broadband network rather than over the AT&T wireless network. The catch with femtocells is that the customer has to purchase the hardware device and pay more each month to use it. This has made the devices unpopular with many consumers who feel that the femtocell makes them pay again for network coverage they are already paying for.

Another significant issue with the AT&T Microcell is that data usage on the 3G network conducted when connected to a Microcell will still count towards the monthly data use of the user. AT&T claims that this is because all 3G data eventually goes across the AT&T backend.

AT&T has also completed the transition of assets that it purchased from Alltel in 79 different service areas ranging across 18 states. The purchase of the assets cost AT&T $2.35 billion and was part of the approval Verizon received to purchase Alltel. Most of the new coverage is in rural areas where Alltel operated. Customers whose networks have transitioned to AT&T will not have to purchase a new device according to the company.

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