tmoore44
join:2004-08-05
Chicago, IL | Equipment and service should be free
The telecos should be giving this equipment and service away for free. It eases the load on their network, so you're doing them a favor using your bandwidth. |
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mlong
Premium
join:2000-05-27
Parker, CO
 ·Qwest.net
| It's a great idea that only cell phone companies can hose
I love the idea but leave it to the cell phone companies to charge you in this "bring your own infrastructure" model. I get great AT&T 3G service at home and I got great Verizon service as well. However, if they offered a femtocell option for say $99 that allowed me to make more calls from home I'd use it.
Right now my wife and I share 550 minutes on AT&T and I use Skype and pay $2.95 to call phones over WiFi from my iPhone. It works great but if AT&T said you get 550 anytime minutes and say 1500 (for this plan) "home" minutes I'd be thrilled. I understand they need to route the call and terminate it somewhere so I don't expect a gagillion free minutes but add a new minute bucket (we've got anytime, night and weekend, mobile to mobile, what's one more?).
I like the ability to use my home WiFi on my iPhone so this would be a sort of extension of that for making phone calls. I think wireless providers would be well served as the market shifts from home phone plus cell phones to strictly cell phone users who are abandoning their land lines. I think the femtocell idea can help them reduce the required upgrades they'll have to make to their towers or at least buy them some time.
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Make money on the stuff you never use: Crowd Rent |
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tommy13v
Premium
join:2002-02-15
Glenville NY | I have the Sprint Airave now and it works pretty well. I also didn't have to pay for the device or monthly fee.
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nightdesigns
Gone missing, back soon
Premium
join:2002-05-31
AZ
 ·Cox HSI
| reply to tmoore44
Re: Equipment and service should be free
said by tmoore44  :The telecos should be giving this equipment and service away for free. It eases the load on their network, so you're doing them a favor using your bandwidth. I agree. I lived in a house that had no sprint reception while 100 yards away I had full reception. Being a long time customer (8 years at the time) and due for a contract renewal, I tried to talk them into the equipment and no additional charge per month for the service. I asked, why should I pay extra when I'm providing them the internet connection. They wouldn't help me.
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This Space for Rent... |
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glinc
join:2009-04-07
New York, NY | LAWL
LOL at these cell companies thinking we should pay for a equipment to improve our reception at home + monthly fees. |
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dcurrey
Premium
join:2004-06-29 | reply to tommy13v
Re: It's a great idea that only cell phone companies can hose
Got one myself. Seems to work pretty good. Took about 2.5 hours on the phone to get them to give me the device for free and waive the monthly fee. |
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wifi4milez
Big Russ, 1918 to 2008. Rest in Peace
join:2004-08-07
New York, NY
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·RoadRunner Cable
 ·BroadVoice
| Femto's should all come with two options
Many people have differing opinions about how much it should cost to have a femtocell. I personally dont think its a big deal if they want to charge $99 for one (although getting it for free is never hard  ). Its really the monthly cost that people cant agree on. I personally would never pay a monthly fee to have one, as I dont want/care for/need more minutes. Others would only want one if they could get unlimited (or a bundle) of minutes for $10 or $20 more per month.
So here is my suggestion. All carriers should offer the option to burn your own minutes, OR purchase a "home" calling plan. This way everyone will want a femtocell, and the carrier will increase their revenues. Also, the majority of people will pay the $99 for the device so thats even more revenue (one time, but still).
I just dont think it makes sense to have two disparate camps; free or pay. There is no reason both cant be available, thus making the device all the more attractive to consumers.
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Steve B
join:2004-08-02
Seattle, WA
| Wireless carriers at it again...
I would agree only to buy the equipment at a decent price. After that, I shouldn't have to pay them for calls going over my internet connection and helping them take a load off their network. I live less than a block away from an AT&T tower (also my carrier) and I have excellent coverage at home. So buying AT&T's femtocell would be pointless unless I got unlimited minutes included with what I'm already paying them for service. Sprint is okay here but, could be better. Verizon here is where a good femtocell (not their crappy Network Extender piece) would work and I would buy if they didn't make you use your minutes while connected to it.
In short, until all femtocell services are included with what you are already paying, it's really a ripoff. |
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slckusr
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Maumee, OH
·Verizon BroadbandA..
·AT&T Midwest
| I love it
Ive had the sprint Airrave for half the year now, and its worth the 4.99 I pay a month to use the phone in my house without any problems. clear calls and 5 bars where i couldn't get 1 bar before.
My phone calls transition from the airrave to the tower fine, but when i come home on the phone I have to hang up and replace my call.
They will really have to reevaluate this service if caps on your internet become more consistent. |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | reply to tmoore44
Re: Equipment and service should be free
I agree.. I could pay a couple of hundred dollars and just purchase a repeater, and NOT have to use MY broadband connection for THEIR service. Also, a repeater would be good for ANY carrier.
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Canada = Hollywood North |
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Eat Me
join:2002-09-25
Sussex, NJ
·PenTeleData
·Future Nine Corpor..
·VOIPo
·Vonage
| reply to tmoore44
said by tmoore44 :The telecos should be giving this equipment and service away for free. It eases the load on their network, so you're doing them a favor using your bandwidth. Then tell your neighbors, HOA and town Governments to stop opposing new cell towers. The signals aren't going to get to your house all by themselves! |
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DaveNJ
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey | Is that really a challege?
I dont think thats a challenge, ATT hasn't offered anything new in years. Really its like saying i am going to do something, and actually attempting. As opposed to ATT , say you dont need it. |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| reply to Steve B
Re: Wireless carriers at it again...
said by Steve B :I would agree only to buy the equipment at a decent price. After that, I shouldn't have to pay them for calls going over my internet connection and helping them take a load off their network. I live less than a block away from an AT&T tower (also my carrier) and I have excellent coverage at home. So buying AT&T's femtocell would be pointless unless I got unlimited minutes included with what I'm already paying them for service. Sprint is okay here but, could be better. Verizon here is where a good femtocell (not their crappy Network Extender piece) would work and I would buy if they didn't make you use your minutes while connected to it. In short, until all femtocell services are included with what you are already paying, it's really a ripoff. In fact, I'd want to see a discount on my cell phone bill for using the femtocell.
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to glinc
Re: LAWL
Yea.. "lol" at them for thinking that they can push a signal past every wall, over every hill, through every building, and all that.. lol at them for thinking you should pay for equipment to improve signal INSIDE your home like businesses do. lol at them when the very agreement you agreed to states that coverage is approximate and that you may not be able to get signal in all places at all times. AND, lol at them thinking you shouldn't have to pay any fees, or minutes, to carry phone calls that they still have to route and pay termination fees on simply becuase they no longer are being carried over the air.. (ok, AIR/LandLine/VoIP.. those are just ways you connect to the switch which is where the real service begins.. just becuase it goes over the internet doesn't mean it's a free call to make. Today's lesson... the internet doesn't make everything "free"..) |
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swintec
Premium
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME |  3G Airave??
I really hope Sprint can enable 3G on the current Airaves out there now, by a simple software upgrade.
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dieman
Premium
join:2002-08-02
Minneapolis, MN | Wifi?
Why not put wifi on all the phones instead so we don't have to have a #*(@)! mini-cell-station for each provider at businesses. T-Mobile gets this, no one else does. (rockin the uma bb 8900) |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to wifi4milez
Re: Femto's should all come with two options
I agree with you..
This is a two part issue here.. the equipment, and the airtime/use.
For one, anytime I've ever called Sprint about a signal issue, there has been a technician at the local tower in 24 to 48 hours to check on it AND I got a phone call every time asking me to check my signal / use at the location I was having problems.. so I give them props for being attentive to that unlike others.
If they can't get service that good in their home - then this equipment is a good options for them... if people want to replace the land line with a cell phone, I say this would be a great back up.
As for the way to use it.. yea.. I agree with you.. you can have a home phone service kinda charge to take the pressure off your minutes, or not have that and use your minutes to make calls no matter what. Otherwise, you'd have many people wanting to replace the land line with wireless, wanting free equipment, dropping their rate plan to almost nothing, and paying no per minute charge. If that's what people want, there's Vonage and other VoIP services for that.. But, to me, and many others that DO agree with me on this, if you want the convenience of a cell phone, you've gotta play like the rest of us who pay the bills to keep the system running. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to slckusr
Re: I love it
said by slckusr :They will really have to reevaluate this service if caps on your internet become more consistent. Why? caps on internet is not of anyone's concern.. IF your internet has caps, then you need to prioritize or use your service in the best way that suits your needs - after all, that's being "neutral"... Just think, if someone downloaded just 1 less movie in a month how many phone calls someone could make and not even think about 'caps'... VoIP calls still take a very tiny amount of bandwidth to make. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
·Comcast
| reply to tommy13v
Re: It's a great idea that only cell phone companies can hose
said by tommy13v :I have the Sprint Airave now and it works pretty well. I also didn't have to pay for the device or monthly fee. Same here. I got Sprint to give a credit for the purchase of the device and also got a $5/mo credit for the service.
And as to having a 3G femtocell:
Actually, you don't need a 3G femtocell in the house. Or a 2G for that matter. You only need a femtocell for voice access where coverage INSIDE the house is poor. Most smartphones now provide WiFi access and that is the way to get data in the house. Afterall, the femtocell needs a broadband connection and a router anyway to work. So if you already have those(assume the router is also a wireless router), you would use WiFi anyway.
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iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
·Comcast
·Qwest.net
·magicjack.com
·BeeCreek Communica..
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
| T-Mobile: Ur doin ir (somewhat) right
T-Mobile has a fair selection of phones with WiFi UMA capability built in. So everywhere you can get WiFi your phone uses that network for calling. Good reception indoors and you don't have to pay $100 or more for a special femtocell, though you do need one of the UMA-enabled phones.
For $10 extra you get unlimited calling over WiFi also.
So why can't other providers follow T-Mobile's model? Subsidize the 'cell a bit and don't charge anything unless someone wants unlimited calls. |
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