3G MicroCells: Carriers Want You to Pay Extra to Fix Their Own Failures - 3G microcell - Gizmodo

3G MicroCells: Carriers Want You to Pay Extra to Fix Their Own Failures - 3G microcell - Gizmodo

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I'll be honest, I am huge fan of the guys and gals over at Gizmodo and I generally find their info to be pretty evenhanded. So when I saw this little "rant" by Adam Frucci (of Gizmodo) I had to chuckle a bit.

In short, Mr. Frucci is ticked about AT&T's new plan to charge users $150 and or $20/month for use of their "microcell" aka femtocell. Now, I can totally sympathize with the Fruccian theory as my limited encounter with AT&T wasn't good but I found a little more info floating around that puts the plan into context.

1. The $20/month plan is only for unlimited cell use. Hence, if you don't choose to get the unlimited minutes, you don't pay a monthly fee and merely deduct your talk time from your cell plan minute pool.

2. If you do subscribe to the unlimited plan you can get a $100.00 rebate from AT&T.

Hence, while it makes sense that the only reason to get this hardware is if you have need for better reception. As Mr. Frucci points out it is somewhat audacious of any phone company to ask its subscribers to pay to fix that comapny's flaws, AT&Ts action is at least in keeping with other carriers. For examply, Sprint's femtocell setup called "Airrave" requires a $99.99 expenditure on the hardware up front along with a $4.99 activation fee and a $1o.00/month/per line fee for unlimited use by one cellphone. For $20.00 total per account, you can get unlimited use for the max number of phones (3 users at one time). Link to Sprint Airrave policy.

In conclusions, I applaud Mr. Frucci for his passionate and not unwarranted statements regarding AT&Ts sometimes spotty service, this particular policy is not unprecedented.

Konrad