AT&T will count Micro-Cell usage towards your data cap

[Shadez]

AT&T will count Micro-Cell usage towards your data cap


by John Biggs on June 17, 2010



Just when you thought it was safe to love AT&T again, we have another interesting tidbit about their famous 3G Micro-Cell, AKA the “rip-off box.”


As you recall, AT&T’s MicroCell is being marketed as a way to repair bad connectivity in areas with little or no AT&T reception including, but not limited to, basements, attics, Manhattan, and San Francisco. It essentially piggy backs on your own home network to provide data service and voice to your phone.


However, AT&T will still charge data used while in range of the Micro-Cell against your no longer unlimited data cap.


This means that you’re essentially allowing AT&T to drop a cell antenna into your house, paying $150 for the privilege, and they get to use your data infrastructure to get voice and data back to their own fiber networks.

Dan Frommer writes:

AT&T explains the practice by saying there is a cost to handle the data transmission once it hits AT&T’s network, after it goes through your broadband pipe. (Likewise, it charges you for the voice minutes that you use over the Micro-Cell. But that’s a different service.)
​

So basically you’re paying AT&T for the privilege of using your phone.


Straight up. While we all know your phone, like hair, is a privilege and not a right, this move again smacks of giving up. Microcells have been around for years, AT&T finally got around to selling them, and they’re basically riding the goodwill of an army of iPhone users who would actually like to use their phones in enclosed areas like their garage workshops, places of business, and some parts of North and South Dakota as well as most of Morgantown, West Virginia.



Again, call it splitting hairs, but this move is cold comfort to those who have been suffering with bad reception since 2007.


via BroadbandReports

 

[Darkseider]

Wow. AT&T is the new SUCK. First they charge an extra $20 to tether on a $25 2 Gig data plan and you get NO extra data for the $20. Seriously? Really? Now this!!? LOL! I think this would be classified as statutory rape in some states.

 

[JhankG]

Scary news because I'm afraid Verizon will just follow their lead.

 

[Shadez]

Scary news because I'm afraid Verizon will just follow their lead.

I doubt it, VZW doesnt have coverage problems like at&t..

 

[JhankG]

Scary news because I'm afraid Verizon will just follow their lead.

I doubt it, VZW doesnt have coverage problems like at&t..

Tiered data plans and removing the truly unlimited option are enough to scare me though.

 

[Shadez]

Scary news because I'm afraid Verizon will just follow their lead.

I doubt it, VZW doesnt have coverage problems like at&t..

Tiered data plans and removing the truly unlimited option are enough to scare me though.

That I agree with :/

 

[Shadez]

Addition:

AT&T Tricks Zuckerberg And Benioff Into Buying MicroCells; Promptly Fails

by MG Siegler on Jun 28, 2010

Oh, AT&T.
I’ve already made my feelings on their MicroCell abundantly clear. Considering the quality of the carrier’s network in cities like San Francisco (which is to say, awful), it’s a good idea. But given the poor state of AT&T’s performance, they should be giving away the device for free to customers affected. Instead, they’re making those customers pay an extra $150 for the “privilege” of having working service. It’s a truly remarkable business model. Let’s call it: bait & switch & fix (for a fee). And it’s working.


AT&T managed to rope in two of the biggest name in tech into their scheme: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff . So that’s great for AT&T, right? Two huge potential endorsers of their rip-off box. Well, not so fast — this is AT&T, after all.


Benioff posted about his new MicroCell purchase on his Facebook wall yesterday. “I hope my iPhone will work at home now,” he wrote. This is undoubtedly the reason the vast majority of users have bought the device (instead of just, you know, leaving AT&T like regular people would do if their service doesn’t work). A lot of commenters on his post were curious to know how well it’s working as they suffer from the poor AT&T service as well. So how is it working? Well, according to the tech giants, it’s a mixed bag.


“I got one and it seems to work pretty well,” Zuckerberg wrote in a comment under Benioff’s post. “Pretty well” isn’t exactly a rave review, but AT&T will undoubtedly take it from Zuckerberg. But Benioff had a different experience. “Bought 2 AT&T MicroCells today. Installation won’t complete. Called AT&T. They said they are having a national MicroCell outage since Friday. It won’t work for 2 more days. Where is TrustAtt.com when you need it?,” Benioff wrote on his wall. Other posts confirm AT&T acknowledging the outage.


It’s another genius plan from AT&T. The network won’t work to make calls, so they get you to spend an additional $150 (on top of the $100+ a month you’re already spending with them for service), then that goes down, but only those wealthy enough to pay for landlines or other cellular phones on other networks (Benioff) are even able to call and complain. If both AT&T and their MicroCell service go down across the country, but no one can make a call to complain about it, did it really happen?


In all seriousness, this is pathetic. And besides Zuckerberg and Benioff, reports across the country seem to be a mixed bag about the MicroCell. Some say it works, some say it doesn’t (even when the network is up). We can’t confirm either of these scenarios because AT&T won’t even sell us one.


With the iPhone 4 selling 1.7 million units in the first three days, a whole new group of people are about to be exposed to the pleasure of AT&T. Hope they have $150 ready when/if that MicroCell network comes back up.

AT&T Tricks Zuckerberg And Benioff Into Buying MicroCells; Promptly Fails