We’ve known that AT&T has been test-marketing free 3G MicroCells to subscribers with particularly awful reception in certain parts of the country since the product launched last year, but as of January 23rd, they’re codifying the offer and taking it nationwide. Bottom line: the “top 7.5 percent of 3G wireless customers identified as likely to experience poor in-building coverage at home or in small offices” will be receiving some snail mail with a discount code; bring it into an AT&T store and you’ll be offered a gratis MicroCell. There’s a catch, though — you need to agree to a one-year contract on the unit (separate from your normal account contract), so if you cancel service within that year, you need to either return the MicroCell or get charged $199.99 minus $16.67 per month that you’ve had it. Of course, that lines up with the newly-increased MicroCell price that the carrier is instituting starting this Sunday. Considering that AT&T needs to acknowledge that you’re in a terrible reception area to get it, we can’t say we’d hope to be one of the “lucky” 7.5 percent — but it’s a nice benefit nonetheless.
How on Earth have Verizon and AT&T both decided to kill off their upgrade discount programs within a few days of each other? Hard to say, but we’ve gotten a little peek at some new policies designed to “streamline” things that are apparently coming into effect next Sunday, January 23rd — and very few (if any) of them are going to bring a smile to your face. Here’s the gist:
There’ll be a new text package of 1,000 messages for $10 with overage at 10 cents apiece. This compares to 5 cents at the 1,500 / $15 level and 10 cents at the 200 / $5 level.
Speaking of those other text packages, they’re going away. Both the 200 and 1,500 text plans are goners. Obviously, if you’re already on them, you shouldn’t be affected — you just won’t be able to select them for new plans or changes anymore.
Early upgrade pricing on new iPhones — the standard subsidized price plus $200 — will only be available six months into an existing iPhone activation.
$50 and $100 discounts on top of subsidized pricing for upgrading customers — similar to Verizon’s recently-killed New Every Two program — are going away. If you’re currently eligible, you’ll still be eligible to take advantage through July 23rd of this year.
Family plan add-a-line activation is increasing $10 to $36.
International voice roaming prices are changing in 117 countries. That’s a lot of countries! We’re assuming most of those rates are going up, not down, though we don’t have details at this point.
Calling to Canada is going from 29 cents per minute to 39 cents.
The 3G MicroCell is increasing in price from $149.99 to $199.99, which seems like a really bizarre move to us — hard to say what the motivation is there. Certain “pre-selected” customers will still receive special discount offers for it in the mail, though.
Check out full details on the changes in the gallery below.
While we’ve no clue how widespread AT&T’s generosity is, or how you might get one, it appears that the company’s “most valuable customers” are now receiving free range-boosting femtocells. Today, loyal reader Jason got a old-fashioned paper letter in the mail, offering his iPhone-wielding family a 3G MicroCell with no strings attached. Driving down to the local AT&T store, he got the product, but the dumbfounded reps offered no explanation why. Though his calls do frequently drop at home, Jason says he wasn’t terribly vocal about the issue and only pays around $180 per month for his family plan — the only thing that might possibly qualify him, in his opinion, is that his contract was set to expire. We’ve reached out to AT&T for more information; in the meanwhile, see Jason’s letter after the break.
[Thanks, Jason]
Update: We’re being told that AT&T is currently in the process of trialling different ways of offering the MicroCell, which is why a handful of customers have received this letter. We suspect you’re always going to get positive reactions when you’re offering something for free… but maybe we’re crazy.
Completing a phased roll-out that kicked off back in April, AT&T has finally gotten around to launching its 3G MicroCell in all of its markets, giving the entire customer base some flexibility when “more bars in more places” doesn’t happen to include your place. Interestingly, the announcement was made in passing during comments by AT&T director Gordon Mansfield at the Femtocells World Summit in London this week, where he spent much of his time trying to quell a minor furor over the carrier’s continued application of data caps when using the MicroCell. He makes some pretty strong arguments: even though all MicroCell voice and data traffic starts off traveling over your own internet connection, it ultimately ends up within AT&T’s core infrastructure — and a legal requirement that the carrier be able to intercept traffic for law enforcement use prevents it from diverting that traffic elsewhere. More importantly, though, if you’re within range of a MicroCell, odds are very good that you’re also within range of a WiFi connection — and since all of AT&T’s data-heavy handsets offer WiFi, the whole complaint is kinda moot. So just get one if you need one and don’t worry about it, okay?
I’ve personally been following the launch of AT&T’s 3G MicroCell very, very closely; I moved last year into a box surrounded on three sides by foot-thick cement (not much of an exaggeration) in which only Verizon’s and T-Mobile’s signals were able to penetrate without assistance — and in my position, it’s a non-negotiable requirement that I be able to use devices from all four US nationals. Since the announcement a few weeks back that the MicroCell would be going national, I’ve been practically bombarding my Chicago-area stores with calls, looking for a hint of detail on when they might be available here; they’ve already launched in New York City, so AT&T clearly isn’t concerned about using them in densely-packed urban areas. This weekend I called four stores, and here’s what I got:
Store 1: “We’re supposed to have them in a couple of weeks.” Store 2: “We’ll have them on May 6.” Store 3: “We have them in stock. Oh, hold on a minute. (long pause) I’m sorry, we’re not allowed to sell them until the 10th.” Store 4: “Yes, we have them in stock.”
In other words, there was no shortage of variety in sales reps’ stories. I don’t know how this happens — it’s conceivable that AT&T really is telling each store something entirely different, but it seems far more likely that these guys simply haven’t been effectively educated on what’s going on here. At any rate, I was able to march down to the fourth store I called and pick up the MicroCell with no hassles, therefore ending a many month-long personal nightmare of mine (and by the way, the device works just wonderfully).
The lesson learned? Even if the MicroCell hasn’t launched in your market — that is, you go to AT&T’s MicroCell site and it tells you it’s not yet available in your zip code — be persistent and keep calling around. You’ve just got to find that one sales guy who’s willing to flip it.
Unless you’ve been in one of a few key test markets, you’ve been pretty much out of luck boosting your AT&T signal in the comfortable confines of your home since the 3G MicroCell first launched — until now. Starting in the middle of next month in a deployment that spans “several” months, customers across the country should expect to see MicroCells pop up in their local regions. The device itself will run a one-time fee of $149.99 before a $100 mail-in rebate (when purchased with a “3G MicroCell calling plan,” though we don’t yet know what that constitutes). Separately, there’ll be a $19.99 plan bolt-on that offers unlimited calling when connected to the device — and anyone tacking on a new U-verse or DSL line of 1.5Mbps or higher will get another $50 rebate. It’s not the end of AT&T’s spectrum or backhaul concerns, we’re sure, but it’s a start.
Update: We’ve just clarified — the $19.99 bolt-on is the only one that’s relevant for the $100 rebate; there are no other dedicated MicroCell calling plans, so that should make it a little easier to bring down the net cost of the unit since you don’t have to change into another base plan.
So we’re in the middle of testing our Sony Ericsson X10 here — stay tuned for that review, by the way — and in the course of flipping through the settings, we noticed something strange: it’s reporting two 3G MicroCells nearby. Now, to the best of our knowledge, you can’t buy a MicroCell in these parts — sales are still strictly limited to a small handful of test markets — but it makes you wonder. For what it’s worth, SE shipped the phone with a GoPhone SIM, but we’re not sure whether that makes a difference. We’re looking into the situation and we’ll report more as soon as we have it.
It may not be the news that folks in some particularly problematic areas have been waiting for, but AT&T has now announced that it’s finally expanded availability of its 3G MicroCell beyond its initial testbed cities like Raleigh and Charlotte. The new markets apparently include some additional areas of North Carolina, along with new parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and San Diego, plus the addition of Las Vegas — the only entirely-new market of the bunch. Hit up the link below to punch in your zipcode for exact availability, and all the necessary details to get “five bars in your own home.” And if you’re curious about exactly what this whole femtocell thing is about, be sure to check out our impressions of the device.
