AT&T 3G MicroCell: A Comprehensive Exploration
by Brian Klug on April 1, 2010 1:55 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- AT&T
- Microcell Review
- Mobile
Conclusions
If you're stuck in a location with absolutely no coverage, the 3G MicroCell is undoubtedly going to improve coverage, and to that extent, it does what it's supposed to do. On the flip side, if you're somewhere with relatively consistent coverage, the MicroCell is only going to frustrate you with its inconsistent at best call handover performance. As far as data is concerned, unless you have a compelling reason to, it makes more sense to use WiFi instead of 3G for both performance and battery reasons. It's definitely a feature to build a real 3G stack on the femtocell, especially when the competitor offerings are essentially voice-only 2.5G offerings, but performance is still much greater over WiFi than HSPA is, yet.
It's obvious that there are still a number of lingering problems with the MicroCell. The MicroCell's relatively abysmal handover performance is something which absolutely must be addressed before nationwide rollouts start in mid April, hopefully even before then. It's a challenging engineering problem, but customers are going to expect that installing what amounts to a cell tower in their home improves performance and coverage no matter what the case - handovers need to be just as transparent as they are elsewhere. There's no excuse for anything less. While we haven't tested Samsung's CDMA solution for Sprint and Verizon or T-Mobile's UMA, it's a fair bet that unreliable handovers are just as frustrating of an occurrence.
In the broader scope of things, there's the very real expectation that femtocells are the solution to our looming spectrum crisis. Unfortunately, this current iteration of devices doesn't let you transparently build out the public cellular network in a manner that benefits everyone - in fact, a lot of people think femtocells do just that. In the case of the AT&T MicroCell, you benefit a maximum of 10 possible people, four at a time. Verizon and Sprint offer 100 and 50 respectively, and a maximum of three at a time. Numbers like these aren't going to come close to mitigating load in even dense urban environments, because you can't share your femtocell. In a lot of ways, T-Mobile's decision to go with UMA - which is constrained solely by WiFi capacity - makes a lot of sense. In fact, it's probably a better power savings to just run one radio on the handset instead of two, and WiFi handovers from AP to AP are largely a solved problem with enterprise gear.
Subscribers that simply want to improve coverage for everyone, perhaps in return for being able to roam on other femtocells while moving around, this current generation of devices isn't going to satisfy. Femtocells are still in their infancy, hopefully in time we'll see apprehension about letting other phones use your bandwidth (in turn improving the network for everyone) gradually erode away. Until then, if signal is absolutely abysmal in your home or office, they're a very practical solution.
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leexgx - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
the UMA thing looks good idea, seems Way more piratical then these base stations ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generic_Access_Networ... ) only ever seen it on blackberry phones thought, only issue i could see with them is if it doe snot work with the wireless router correctly or intermittently out of range of routerjulioromano - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
Very nice and geeky review.Thanks for all the infos!
Simozene - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
1. These units need to be very cheap or free for consumers.2. Any minutes or data usage that is routed over this instead of AT&Ts regular network should not be counted towards the limits on your data plan. It's not their network so you should not have to pay for using it.
If those two conditions are met I can see how this could be a very useful product.
sxr7171 - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
But it's not. It can't even hand off properly.Chrisg331 - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
1st off, great article. Good methodology as well. Will you be able to test different handsets (Primarily different chipsets/antenna designs to eliminate bias on the dropped calls), possibly test a repeater (as mentioned before) and possibly test data usage pattern(s) for those that may be bandwidth capped on their broadband? Great job. Could really be useful to those looking to ditch landlines.GregHH - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
In your haste to slam AT&T you neglect to notice that the other cell carriers offer the same type of device. That implies their coverage must not be perfect and all encompassing. Everyone seems to think cell coverage should be ubiquitous whether in a metro area or in the wilderness. I feel good that my area finally got 3G coverage in December of 2010.JKflipflop98 - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
So, we're in the future looking back on the past then? Or we're in the past looking towards the current? Oh God, my head's going to explode.ivwshane - Friday, April 2, 2010 - link
There is no required monthly cost. Buy just the microcell and use your existing minutes and data plan. Buy a microcell with a $20 feature and you can have unlimited minutes while using it and you also get a $100 rebate.No one is forcing anyone to buy these, at&t is simply giving it's users a choice, if you want to improve your in home coverage then buy one, otherwise don't.
mikeshady - Saturday, April 3, 2010 - link
So if I understand it correctly the price,$20/month unlimited calling$10/month with AT&T DSL
$0 with AT&T landline.
Will i be able to use it for the unlimited free since i have att landline
mrSHEiK124 - Tuesday, April 6, 2010 - link
Those failed handover videos; that happens ALL OF THE TIME on at&t in the Tampa, FL area. If you're on a highway or main-road and venture off into the boonies, as you get booted off 3G all you can hear is distortion (the handover is successful and the call doesn't drop, but good luck continuing the phone call...) and weird audio artifacts. at&t...more bars in more places.