Reviews:
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| The non-hysterical version of this news Voice calling over 3G:
Your voice plan remains the same whether you have MicroCell or not. You can choose to pay an extra $20/month for unlimited voice calling over the MicroCell. Or, you can keep your plan as is, and all voice minutes count against the plan.
If you sign up for the $20/month unlimited minutes plan, you get a $100 rebate on the $150 store price of the MicroCell.
Data over 3G:
If you have an unlimited data plan on your phone, you're good to go, use as much as you like. All non-tethering data plans before June 7 were unlimited, and you are automatically "grandfathered in" -- your plan will only change if you take action.
Despite rumors to the contrary, there is no 5GB cap on unlimited data phone plans, only on tethered or PC datacard plans.
If you are on one of the new tiered-pricing plans, DataPro or DataPlus, 3G data usage over the MicroCell is still counted as data used against your plan, even if you've signed up for the $20/month unlimited voice-over-Microcell plan.
(speculation: I suspect that this is more of an AT&T billing issue than a conscious business decision on AT&T's part. I suspect that when they decided to put the new tiered-price DataPlus/DataPro plans in place, they simply didn't have a mechanism to exempt the MicroCell 3G data usage from being counted against the plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see this change at some point.)
The obvious way to avoid being hit with overage charges is to use WiFi for data access from your phone, rather than use 3G over the MicroCell. After all, the MicroCell requires an Internet connection, so there's one nearby, which can easily be enabled for WiFi if it isn't already.
Using WiFi has the additional advantage of being much faster than using data over 3G, especially for uploads where the MicroCell limits 3G data speeds to about 50 kbits/sec.
The only situations I can imagine where using WiFi wouldn't work are :
(a) your smartphone doesn't have WiFi capability. Solution: upgrade to a new smartphone, all the new ones have WiFi.
(b) you don't control the Internet access point where the MicroCell is located, and you can't get access to WiFi. Solution: I can't imagine this happens much -- maybe in a small business where they refuse to install WiFi for some reason? If so, just make the people who run the Internet access at your location aware of your issue. |
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msanto
join:2001-08-13
Castro Valley, CA | Thank goodness, a voice of reason. I was wondering why no one said this. I mean, come on, I dislike the fact that AT&T charges for their microcell at all, but give me a break. |
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Reviews:
 ·T-Mobile US
·Cox HSI
| reply to MyDogHsFleas
or just not be a douche like they have been since the cingular days and make it right with the customers?
Im sorry but why should i have to enable a 2nd radio on my phone to drain the battery 2x as fast (thus causing more wear n tear on my battery as well) just because you decided to not fix my neighborhood with reception so im using my bandwidth to supplement your coverage?
This makes absolutely no sense, as the billing system sure as hell can easily distinguish where the data is coming from, there is a reason why on your bill it will tell you where you made/received a call (they do know what tower you are actively using at the moment a call or data is used). |
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Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by brad152:Im sorry but why should i have to enable a 2nd radio on my phone to drain the battery 2x as fast So plug in your phone while you use it. You're at home. Besides you will want to enable WiFi because it's much faster than 3G data over the microcell. |
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| so i have to use 2x the charge cycles, then go by a $50-$100 battery in 1/2 the time? no thanks. |
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Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by brad152:so i have to use 2x the charge cycles, then go by a $50-$100 battery in 1/2 the time? no thanks. holy crap give it a rest.
also I found out that since iPhone OS 3.x, running WiFi does not run down the battery significantly. |
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| how 'bout you give it a rest mmmmkay? im entitled to that opinion and no since iphone 3/x it still drains the battery, when my WiFi is off i can get ~2 days of usage out of my iPhone, but when it's on, im lucky to get 10 hours. |
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Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by brad152:how 'bout you give it a rest mmmmkay? im entitled to that opinion and no since iphone 3/x it still drains the battery, when my WiFi is off i can get ~2 days of usage out of my iPhone, but when it's on, im lucky to get 10 hours. Sorry to be testy, it was uncalled for.
Looking at the Apple site it says:
quote:
If you rarely use Wi-Fi, you can turn it off to save power. Go to Settings > Wi-Fi and set Wi-Fi to Off. Note that if you frequently use your iPhone to browse the web, battery life may be improved by using Wi-Fi instead of cellular data networks.
So it sounds like Wi-Fi drains the battery less than 3G, at least according to Apple. I believe you can put it in Airplane mode then turn on WiFi to have just the WiFi radio on. |
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Reviews:
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to MyDogHsFleas
quote:
speculation: I suspect that this is more of an AT&T billing issue than a conscious business decision on AT&T's part. I suspect that when they decided to put the new tiered-price DataPlus/DataPro plans in place, they simply didn't have a mechanism to exempt the MicroCell 3G data usage from being counted against the plan. I wouldn't be surprised to see this change at some point.)
It appears my speculation was completely wrong. Check out this article.
quote:
Unlike WiFi traffic, femto traffic travels over AT&T's core network. Furthermore, AT&T is not allowed to divert or offload femto traffic from its core network because of the legal requirement to provide lawful intercept to law enforcement agencies.
So, AT&T charges subscribers for data used on the femto, and not on WiFi, because femtocells use more carrier network resources than WiFi.
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Reviews:
·T-Mobile US
·Cox HSI
| reply to MyDogHsFleas
oh no it's cool, i just do notice a huge battery drain on WiFi when compared, and turning my cell radio is not an option as i am on call for pc repairs lol
i just know on my original iPhone i went through 2 batteries in a year and a half because i left WiFi on all the time and had to charge it a lot more than normal. |
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