 
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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Blagojevich / Madoff 2012! | |
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gdm
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
clubs: | Re: Easy Way to Make This Work Depending on cost and whether it uses my minutes. I would consider it. | |
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Neyland
join:2003-02-04
USA | 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
| 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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Siryak
join:2005-11-26
 ·WildBlue
| 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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[IMG]»img218.imageshack.us/img218/2636···3dg6.gif
Wildblue(unfortunately) Pro Pack / Beam 40 / Laredo NOC / Windows Vista Home Premium | |
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NOCMan
Verizon Fios User
Premium
join:2004-09-30
Flower Mound, TX
| 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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Play a Death Knight?
www.theebonhold.com | |
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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
Premium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD
·Comcast
| Re: Easy Way to Make This Work 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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Blagojevich / Madoff 2012! | |
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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
 ·North State Commun..
| 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
| Re: Easy Way to Make This Work 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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Matt
Take me down to the paradise city
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC
·North State Commun..
| 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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digitalfreak
join:2005-12-09
49533
1 edit | 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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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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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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»www.Digium.com | |
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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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Stripes
@apple.com
| 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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Corona
It's cool, I'm takin it back
Premium
join:2000-03-14
Aubrey, TX | I don't think it takes more than 64kbps to make a voice call. | |
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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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| bentech302
join:2007-02-14
Oregon, OH | Re: Hooray for AT&T! Let's see your a BUCKEYE CABLE fan to bad haha!!!!! | |
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fiber_man
Things Happen For A Reason
Premium
join:2001-01-27
Port Saint Lucie, FL | I will edit for you Southwestern Bell. AT&T and BellSouth die years ago.
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| slckusr
Premium
join:2003-03-17
Maumee, OH | Re: Sprint Airave.. I love my Airrave, it solved the whole cell phone not working in my house thing. | |
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I Use Dial
join:2004-01-04
Morgan Hill, CA
clubs:
·Charter Pipeline
| I can't wait. As long as the pricing is reasonable and I'm given unlimited minutes, I'd love to have this plan, and I think that's the way AT&T will go with it. Why would I ditch Vonage for my cell is the minutes are terrible? I couldn't possibly rely on rollover minutes for my regular home use.
And I don't have an issue with paying a small fee. I assume the testing, marketing, and implementation of the service must cost something. Besides, if I get additional benefit from the service, what's wrong with paying for that?
Of course, the price IS going to have to be low enough to tear me away from Vonage, which is not as easy as they might thing. The free unlimited calls to China are a huge deal for me. I really don't like having to go back to dialing calling cards all the time.
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chsteiger
Premium
join:2003-10-03
Pasadena, TX
| Roll it out already! AT&T keeps talking and talking and talking and press release and talking about Femtocell. I think there were specs on the box they will use on this site a few months ago.
What are the cities are getting this and when already!
I had to install a repeater in my house because my reception is so bad...
You might be thinking, "this guy must live in the sticks"... wrong, I live in metro Houston where AT&T has about the worst service I have ever seen. | |
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Corona
It's cool, I'm takin it back
Premium
join:2000-03-14
Aubrey, TX | Re: Roll it out already! Look, either you people bitch they roll out something too fast and it has lots of bugs, or you bitch that it's taking too long. | |
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FastiBook
join:2003-01-08
Newtown, PA | So if the router dies or power goes out...... Back to 1-2 bars.
How about just build up 850 mhz.
- A
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xlimitx
join:2001-12-31
Wilkes Barre, PA
·ProLog
| AT&T Contradicts Itself Once Again AT&T is surely an interesting company with regards to how they handle PR.
This week I believe they(AT&T) stated that gaming shouldn't be any kind of concern with regards to a definition of a service that broadband can provide. However, they do seem to like the fact that they can latch another parasitic service on to another company's broadband whether it be a cable, LEC or any other type of service provider.
Does this concern anyone else? | |
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AT&T Femtocell Trial Expanding
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Sprint Airave..