pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
 ·Comcast
| Easy Way to Make This Work
AT&T should not only provide these devices at zero cost, but they should also give a discount on their wireless service to everyone who uses such a device.
I have my doubts that people who live in places where AT&T has bad service will pay extra to AT&T for something that should be working correctly to begin with.
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gdm
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
clubs: | Depending on cost and whether it uses my minutes. I would consider it. |
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nuon
@sbcglobal.net | Pricing
Anybody know pricing/monthly charges? I'd really like to know if you'll lose your minutes. |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA | reply to gdm
Re: Easy Way to Make This Work
That's the big question, does it use minutes? |
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ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL
| reply to gdm
said by gdm  :Depending on cost and whether it uses my minutes. I would consider it. Same here. I'm not sure of the price I'd be willing to pay, but I know I wouldn't be willing to get it if it was like VZW's model, where you buy the thing, get no extra minutes, and can't even control who connects to it.
If the femtocell benefits AT&T by reducing the load on their network, then I'm going to get some benefit out of it, or I'm not buying. |
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kapil
The Kapil
join:2000-04-26
Chicago, IL
| The best part about this...
...is that AT&T is also one of the biggest ISPs in the world.
If AT&T's wireless division is offering a product/service that eats up bandwidth on the "fixed" broadband connections like DSL then AT&T's ISP division can't prevent competing services from doing the same.
If they try to prevent, say, Sprint or Verizon's femtocells from connecting over an AT&T DSL, but let their own work just fine...there will hell to pay.
Kinda' undercutting Big Ed's "my pipes" argument.
But knowing AT&T, they haven't thought this far ahead...which is good because this, a few years down the road, will put them right in the middle of the net neutrality debate...and either they become 'for' it....or piss off a lot of customers and regulators by pushing their own services while disabling/degrading those of a competitor.
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NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX
| reply to pnh102
Re: Easy Way to Make This Work
There's a number of causes of bad service for any wireless carrier. Try covering a large home with a 802.11G access point and you might see the problems wireless carriers have.
Can not exactly put a tower in everyone's back yard, and if you're in a PCS zone which is 1.9Ghz vs Cellular which is 900mhz the signal does not penetrate vegetation or walls etc as well as Cellular.
LTE will use 700Mhz which will have even better penetration so hopefully some fringe areas will benefit.
Carriers can not just up more towers, municipalities restrict carriers or ask for hundreds of thousands of dollars up front for the tower to be built, or force the carrier to limit it's height which in turn limits it's usefulness.
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Shrug.
A particular carrier's coverage issues are not my problem. I just go with whoever provides the best service in my area. For me, that just happens to be AT&T.
What I won't do is pay extra (over my monthly subscriber fee) to get the same level of service that someone who does live near a tower would get for that same fee.
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r81984
Fair and Balanced
Premium
join:2001-11-14
St John'S, NL
 ·magicjack.com
·Cox HSI
·Insight Communicat..
 ·AT&T Midwest
| reply to kapil
Re: The best part about this...
This is why we need the government to step in and prevent any ISP from regulating their internet with caps, blocked ports, or Qos. All these ISP that also sell cable tv and phone will protect those services by limiting the internet connections. Internet has to be protected.
What will happen is devices like this will either be block or crippled with Qos.
ISPs are on the verge of screwing over the consumer by restricting the internet, we have to stop it now before they do it.
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Wildbill1978
@radford.edu
| Caps Kill This Idea For Me
ATT's wireless service isn't good in my area, and it has prevented me from getting the iPhone. I see this device as being the answer to my problems depending on the extra cost that goes with it. (From past articles it sounded like the minutes would be unlimited on the device, but would cost extra per month). But since my cable company gives me only 40GB a month of data usage, I don't know that I could use this device, because I have no idea of how much data it would use to make a call, etc.
My complaint isn't about the device, but how my choice in service is restricted due to my lack of home ISP choices. |
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Telco_Tech
join:2009-05-18
Toledo, OH
1 edit | Hooray for AT&T!
EDIT: After further consideration, I've decided to spare you all my anti-AT&T sentiment. I'll sum my thoughts up by simply saying "I really, really dislike AT&T."
- Tate
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to pnh102
Re: Easy Way to Make This Work
said by pnh102 :AT&T should not only provide these devices at zero cost, but they should also give a discount on their wireless service to everyone who uses such a device. I have my doubts that people who live in places where AT&T has bad service will pay extra to AT&T for something that should be working correctly to begin with. I don't think they should provide the devices at zero cost, but I don't think if they're connected to a broadband connection that you pay for that your minutes should be used. We are talking about AT&T here though, so I fully expect it to be an extra fee. |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| said by Matt :I don't think they should provide the devices at zero cost ... In most populated areas, you have at least one or more good cell provider that works reasonably well. If that provider isn't AT&T, then why would anyone pay extra to AT&T for a device to make their service work as expected when one could pay less to another provider and get usable service instead?
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Gbcue
E.I.T.
Premium
join:2001-09-30
Santa Rosa, CA
clubs: 
 ·T-Mobile US
·Skype
 ·Dreamhost
·Comcast
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Neyland
said by Neyland :That's the big question, does it use minutes? It's AT&T, of course it'll use minutes.
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digitalfreak
join:2005-12-09
49533
1 edit | reply to Matt
You should pay a reasonable fee for the device itself, but NEVER pay any fee to use it. It also shouldn't use your cell minutes. People using femtocells is a huge win for the carriers since it takes stress off their cell sites. I get "free" service when I use it, and they don't have to spend so much money to add capacity to their cellular network. |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME
·RapidVPS
·surpasshosting
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·VoicePulse
·RoadRunner Cable
|  Sprint Airave..
I will say that the technology is cool and that the Sprint Airave has been a blessing for me and my SERO plan from Sprint. If the plan I had wasnt such a good price..there would have been little reason for me to get a device..I would have just gotten a different plan from a carrier who had better coverage at my home.
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| reply to pnh102
Re: Easy Way to Make This Work
said by pnh102 :said by Matt :I don't think they should provide the devices at zero cost ... In most populated areas, you have at least one or more good cell provider that works reasonably well. If that provider isn't AT&T, then why would anyone pay extra to AT&T for a device to make their service work as expected when one could pay less to another provider and get usable service instead? That's a good question that I think would best be decided on an individual basis. I pay for sub-par AT&T service because it's cheaper than Verizon. On the order of about $100 a month less. So I'd happily fork out $199 or so for a Femotocell device, but I'll be damn if I'm paying a monthly fee for it if it uses my minutes too. |
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Siryak
join:2005-11-26
 ·WildBlue
| reply to gdm
said by gdm :Depending on cost and whether it uses my minutes. I would consider it. I would rather it use minutes than having to pay extra for it. I have thousands of rollover minutes anyway.
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Stripes
@apple.com
| reply to Wildbill1978
Re: Caps Kill This Idea For Me
I don't know that I could use this device, because I have no idea of how much data it would use to make a call, etc GSM calls are 4Kbits/sec (I think this is the half-rate codec including all non-circuit setup signaling). A uncompressed wireline voice call is 56Kbits/sec of voice data normally bloated to 64Kbits/sec with signaling data. Higher quality cell calls are more like 8Kbits/sec.
There is no reason a "phone quality" voice transmission should take more then 64Kbits/sec, and it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect more like 8Kbit/sec to 16Kbit/sec.
Assuming the worst case of 64Kbit/sec, and assuming your cable company means "bits" not "bytes" when they say "40GB cap" you can talk for a bit over 182 HOURS (or 7+ straight DAYS) before you hit the cap (assuming no other internet use). This ignores call set up and tear down, but they send less data per second then the actual calls. If your data cap is really in bytes then you can talk for over 1450 hours (or 60 DAYS).
So voice traffic is relatively small compared to a 40GB cap. If these "cell to VOIP bridges" only bridge calls from accounts you authorize it is unlikely to be much of a problem for you. If they handle ANY AT&T customer in range and you live in an apartment or something, there could be more of an issue for you.
(personally I figure it would be fair for the VOIP minutes to be free, or at a radically reduced cost, say 90% discount; and the VOIP box to be "at cost"...if you get to set what accounts get to use it, if AT&T sets it, then I'm not sure I would even pay "nothing" to buy one, but I'm sure some people would...then again maybe if my phone reception were worse at my house I would be willing to pay full airtime AND the box cost AND let others use it). |
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bentech302
join:2007-02-14
Oregon, OH | reply to Telco_Tech
Re: Hooray for AT&T!
Let's see your a BUCKEYE CABLE fan to bad haha!!!!! |
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