Categories
Mobile

Free MicroCells For Poor AT&T Coverage Customers?

If you are in the United States and are experiencing poor network coverage at home or at office over your AT&T network, there is likely to be a fix for that soon. An internal memo circulated by AT&T talks about a new offer starting January 23 that will offer free MicroCells – with no monthly fee attached – to customers pre-selected by AT&T who have been known to suffer from poor coverage.

The MicroCell shall be free to use with only the monthly cellular service charges to account for.  However customers who cancel their account inside a year are liable to pay the equipment fee of $199.99 after deducting the monthly fee of $16.67 on a pro-rata basis.

AT&T’s new plan appears to target customers who are most likely to defect to another carrier. By offering free MicroCells for a year, not only will AT&T manage to retain these customers for an additional year, but will also be able to buy more time to improve infrastructure in these regions.

Having said that, this is still a rumor. So take this with a pinch of salt.

Categories
Product Issues

AT&T Microcell Causing iPhone 4 Voice Dropping Issues

Okay, so add one more to the list of issues that have plagued the new iPhone 4 since it debuted over a month and a half back. Several iPhone 4 customers have been posting on the AT&T wireless forums complaining that their device appears to be facing voice “skipping” issues when they are near an AT&T Microcell. This issue makes it difficult to listen to the person on the other end since the voice continuously drops in and out though there are no signal issues and the call does not disconnect.

The issue is noted to be isolated to iPhone 4 since users have noticed little to no issues of this sort on their older iPhone models. So while the issue is clearly with Apple, the company has – as usual – put the blame on others. A member on the forums quotes a response he received from a senior Apple executive,

“I received a response today about the escalation concerning the MicroCell. As the phone was developed to work outside and not work specifically with the MicroCell it is a change AT&T will have to make with the MicroCell.”

So as you know, Apple products are faultless. So, if you are facing this issue, just try not using your Microcell.