AT&T announced today that it will be making its MicroCell technology available in mid-April. If you are not familiar, MicroCell is similar to a wireless router for your home that acts like a mini cellular repeater. With this device installed your AT&T signal will be boosted limiting dropped calls and raising the ‘bars’.
You will be able to customize the device to lock in only phones that you authorize and you can make a call within your MicroCell and move to the normal AT&T network. But you cannot move the other direction; making a call on the AT&T network and moving to your MicroCell.
Other downsides to this offering is; the need to purchase additional equipment at the estimated price of $150. There is an additional $20 per month, which is optional for an unlimited MicroCell plan. And the need for a high speed internet connection like DSL and not like satellite.
I wonder if AT&T has hired Steve Jobs as it seems they have taken a page right out of the Apple business model. Why not create a way for a device to use an existing wireless router in an existing wireless network. I know that my Verizon BlackBerry can already connect to my home wireless network so it seems only logical that Voice Over IP (VOIP) is only a simple application away.. Don’t they “have an app for that”?
Yahoo News
Posted by
Mike Wright
