Just got my MicroCell, unboxing inside!!

[cameronjpu]

Again, you are being disingenuous here. The average home has upspeed bandwidth of about 600kbps. 40kbps for a call is 6.66% of your upspeed bandwidth.

Couple things - first, the "average" internet user only uses the internet for sending text emails, browsing web sites and the like. The average user does not send dozens of digital pictures or songs out, so upload speed and usage is totally unimportant.

That being said, you would presume that someone voluntarily doing something like this to help himself and his neighbors probably has higher than "average" internet service, since average internet service includes a ton of 768 DSL users. There are plenty of FIOS and cable connections out there that have 10x the upload bandwidth and would never notice a couple hundred KBps going out.

10 calls would be almost 70% of your Internet bandwidth.

In your average case, yes. But not on my network, and I imagine not on any of the other readers of this thread.

This also assumes no actual usage by these users for anything other than phone calls. Browsing, etc, will potentially use more bandwidth than a phone call.

Is there a reason why the microcell could not have it's upstream bandwidth use capped so as not to interfere with the owner's internet service? No.

 

[jmpage2]

Couple things - first, the "average" internet user only uses the internet for sending text emails, browsing web sites and the like. The average user does not send dozens of digital pictures or songs out, so upload speed and usage is totally unimportant.

That being said, you would presume that someone voluntarily doing something like this to help himself and his neighbors probably has higher than "average" internet service, since average internet service includes a ton of 768 DSL users. There are plenty of FIOS and cable connections out there that have 10x the upload bandwidth and would never notice a couple hundred KBps going out.



In your average case, yes. But not on my network, and I imagine not on any of the other readers of this thread.



Is there a reason why the microcell could not have it's upstream bandwidth use capped so as not to interfere with the owner's internet service? No.

You'd be surprised. Does Vonage or Ooma or Sun Rocket or any other VoIP provider put mechanisms in place to prevent you from over driving your pipe? No.

Also, you have modified your stance from saying that AT&T should give this away for free to now saying that only those who understand how much bandwidth they have and what the impact will be to them should do this. How do you propose sorting out the different types of users? Will AT&T engineer their home network for them to make sure it all works properly?

You also fail to acknowledge that this device covers an area of approx 5,000 sq ft. This certainly wouldn't reach from one home to 10. The benefit of this as a way of filling in network coverage gaps seems tenuous at best.

 

[cameronjpu]

You'd be surprised. Does Vonage or Ooma or Sun Rocket or any other VoIP provider put mechanisms in place to prevent you from over driving your pipe? No.

Those services are not similar to what ATT could do by opening the microcell to users outside the house.

Also, you have modified your stance from saying that AT&T should give this away for free to now saying that only those who understand how much bandwidth they have and what the impact will be to them should do this. How do you propose sorting out the different types of users? Will AT&T engineer their home network for them to make sure it all works properly?

I don't understand - I have not modified my stance that they should give it away free. They should give it away free to anyone who wants it, but yes, they should make sure that the people who get it know the extent to which it uses their internet connection. Someone on a $17.99 DSL connection would be told that if a full complement of users were connected, they might notice that uploading 100 pictures would take 20 minutes instead of 10 for them.

You also fail to acknowledge that this device covers an area of approx 5,000 sq ft. This certainly wouldn't reach from one home to 10. The benefit of this as a way of filling in network coverage gaps seems tenuous at best.

5000 square feet is a pretty meaningless value. After all, we all know that the range of this device would be a sphere, so why isn't the area measured in cubic feet?

5000 square feet, if you assume it's a measurement of a circle painted on the ground around the box, that's a circle with a 40 foot radius.

A 40 foot radius would easily include my townhouse and 10 others. I suspect anyone living in a city would include at least another couple houses. If you set one up in an apartment that got bad service, it would give a dozen other people access. I'm sure the tree huggers in San Fran would be jumping on this device

Not to mention, we're not talking about the need to cover 10 houses, but 10 devices. Since most families have one cell company, a family of 4 would probably have 2.5 cell phones, meaning only three houses would have to be covered.

So we get back to my main point.

Enabling this device to connect 10 devices without manually configuring it to do so would benefit more than just the owner without inconveniencing the owner, provided that owner had a high speed internet connection faster than the slowest available, and provided that that owner knew of the risks to using it. It all seems very reasonable, and while the consensus here is clearly "mine mine mine mine mine," I don't think you would deny that there are people out there who would more happily share what they have with someone who doesn't.

 

[rjohnstone]

5000 square feet, if you assume it's a measurement of a circle painted on the ground around the box, that's a circle with a 40 foot radius.

5,000 sqft is a square roughly 70.71 ft x 70.71. ft
That would give you a signal that radiates out a little over 35 feet from the the device in all directions.
If I placed that in the center of my house, my neighbor would not get any benefit at all.

My property is 100 ft x 85 ft (8,500 sqft) typical lot size for your average American suburb.
According to the specs, the signal would never leave my property. I would see no need to lock it down at all.

In an urban setting, I can see this needing to be locked down if you didn't want to share you bandwidth.

It's your internet service and your Micro Cell... do with it as you please.

 

[cameronjpu]

5,000 sqft is a square roughly 70.71 ft x 70.71. ft
That would give you a signal that radiates out a little over 35 feet from the the device in all directions.
If I placed that in the center of my house, my neighbor would not get any benefit at all.

I believe the equation you're looking for is pi*(r)^2

 

[jmpage2]

Enabling this device to connect 10 devices without manually configuring it to do so would benefit more than just the owner without inconveniencing the owner, provided that owner had a high speed internet connection faster than the slowest available, and provided that that owner knew of the risks to using it. It all seems very reasonable, and while the consensus here is clearly "mine mine mine mine mine," I don't think you would deny that there are people out there who would more happily share what they have with someone who doesn't.

By your logic we should also all open up our Wi-Fi to offer free hotspot service for the poor impoverished masses of laptop users out there who desperately need to download their latest email attachment.

The reality is that we don't live in communes. If someone wants to set up a hotspot or wants to share their microcell device then they should do so. The default though should not be to expect someone to install one of these devices to patch holes in AT&T weak network.

In any event, you've made your point and I've made mine. If you feel so strongly then I would advise you to start an online petition, blog, etc, espousing these views. This discussion has gotten seriously OT.

 

[cameronjpu]

By your logic we should also all open up our Wi-Fi to offer free hotspot service for the poor impoverished masses of laptop users out there who desperately need to download their latest email attachment.

Was that my logic? I thought I said only those who wanted to do it should do it? But I guess you're the expert on what I'm saying. How about this - I don't try to rephrase what you're saying, why do you keep trying to tell me what I'm trying to say?

By the way, plenty of people DO do share their wifi connections, because they know that their neighbor using the internet like they use the internet will not have any impact on each other's use.

In any event, you've made your point and I've made mine. If you feel so strongly then I would advise you to start an online petition, blog, etc, espousing these views. This discussion has gotten seriously OT.

I wonder why you think I should go start a petition. Can't I stay and discuss this more? Or not on this board, this board is only for people who agree with each other?

I'm glad to hear you're done though I am happy to see that a few people came around to my side (that is - that people who want to be able to use a device like this to improve not just their own connection, but others', should be able to do so).

 

[AbSoluTc]

Just do this and be done with it already...

 

[Apple Guru]

Got the confirmation email, a few seconds later I got full service!! finally!! Man im glad i got this thing.

As far as pricing, I heard that its expensive. like 300 bucks. i dont see how they can charge that, then a monthly charge as much as 30/mo. In my situation, I could care less, I dont have a home service (that would cost the same anyways) so this is the best solution. I get 25% off my bill anyways so even if it was 30 a month, i dont care.

Bottom line is, if you want a service, you pay for a service. You dont want it, you dont buy it. You want to sit in a smoky restaurant, you do. You dont, they dont get your money. You think its worth it, you get it. You dont, you come to a internet forum and cry life isnt fair Its the basis of free market capitalism.

In the meantime, drool

Does it always say MCELL by the 3G icon?

 

[nozebleed]

Does it always say MCELL by the 3G icon?

while you are on the mcell service, yes. my neighbors scrolled "MicroCell" back and forth a few times then settled on "Micr...3G". I dont know if this was because he has a 3g or if he may be on 2.x still. didnt ask

Just do this and be done with it already...

this has been done, when i said i was done. but thanks!!

Does the iPhone use the 3G for data or the Wifi for data? Curious to know about that.

wifi for data if it is enabled.

 

[cameronjpu]

this has been done, when i said i was done. but thanks!!

Head's up! DANGEROUS subversion afoot!

Ha!

 

[Apple Guru]

To bad it isn't avaible to purchase right now. I really need one for the area I live in. A repeater won't do any good since I don't live in a great service area, even thought AT&T coverage map says other wise.

 

[AbSoluTc]

wifi for data if it is enabled.

That's good to know. Have you tried the 3G and is the speed nice and fast? Or is it just the same?

 

[cameronjpu]

That's good to know. Have you tried the 3G and is the speed nice and fast? Or is it just the same?

3G is plenty fast, but it doesn't come anywhere near your typical wifi connection. The 3GS made that difference a lot smaller though, because the bottleneck of rendering the pages is pretty much removed.

 

[Eso]

Yeah, because 1% of my $50 cable bill is equivalent to 1% of my total paycheck.

It's the same principle of a different magnitude. Your idea is socialist; this country is based on capitalism. You can argue all you want about how nice and neighborly it is to share the broadband connection that you pay for with a handful of strangers at no cost to them. It's cute, but historically, socialism hasn't worked out too well on this planet.

 

[cameronjpu]

It's the same principle of a different magnitude. Your idea is socialist; this country is based on capitalism. You can argue all you want about how nice and neighborly it is to share the broadband connection that you pay for with a handful of strangers at no cost to them. It's cute, but historically, socialism hasn't worked out too well on this planet.

Ugh...

Socialism is the government forcing it's citizens to share the wealth.

This country, America, was BUILT on neighbors helping neighbors.

Christ. Is that what we've come to? You suggest doing something nice for others that doesn't hurt yourself, and people call you socialist? If I didn't get called a greedy capitalist (I'm actually Objectivist if anything) and just today my own mother told me my views on universal health care (against it) made her want to cry.

So please people, get a grip.

 

[nozebleed]

That's good to know. Have you tried the 3G and is the speed nice and fast? Or is it just the same?

seems like it's faster on the microcell. this is a great test tho, thanks for the idea. I'm going use speedtest right now on 3g. I'll take 3 screenshots and then when I get home in about 45 mins I'll test on that and compare. I'll post results around midnight eastern time. about an hour from now (I'm still at work)

 

[AbSoluTc]

seems like it's faster on the microcell. this is a great test tho, thanks for the idea. I'm going use speedtest right now on 3g. I'll take 3 screenshots and then when I get home in about 45 mins I'll test on that and compare. I'll post results around midnight eastern time. about an hour from now (I'm still at work)

Sounds good. Logic would tell me 3G at home should be as fast or faster due to proximity and the line it's on.

 

[nozebleed]

(uploading)

this labatt blue is tasty

OK, for the first 3 tests, the server was in Morristown, TN. It was the closest server to Charlotte (downtown) on the list. Here are the results of this test. ( I thought this was kinda crappy, but idk)

Good enough to say average ~500 dl, ~200+ ul


Now, at home, the original Morristown, TN server was not available on the list anymore. I'm about 20 miles north of Charlotte at home, but the closest server that came up on the MicroCell connection was Atlanta, GA. For comparison sakes, TN was 138 mi away in Charlotte, Atlanta is 232 mi from my house. The results are interesting.

This average close enough to say ~1500kbps dl, but it seems that ul is throttled at 55. When it hit 55 it stuck there.

For S&G's I decided to test wifi. I got all kinds of different results.

 

[AbSoluTc]

Seems wifi is sporadic? However it looks like the M-cell does increase the speed.

 

[liquidsuns]

This thing isn't nearly as cool as i initially thought it was.
So basically it's only for people that have like zero bars of coverage in the house. I can't see it being useful for anyone else or for anything else whatsoever.

And even then...I mean, in my house I have like one bar of edge (sometimes it's not even edge but that little white circle thing where the edge or 3g symbol appear) and I can still text and make phone calls. You don't need high strength 3g or edge to make calls and text.

The only thing this would be useful for other than literally having zero reception in your house is to have full bar 3g for internet....but you need broadband in your house to use it....so just drop $80 on a wireless router, if for some reason you don't already have one, and use your own wifi.

This is a VERY niche device for a hefty sum to make up for at&t's spotty coverage, which disappoints me cause I misunderstood what it does when I first read about it and thought it would be really sweet.

 

[NightStorm]

This thread has completely lost itself. At one point, it was actually a really good forum post. But all this pointless bickering has ruined what was a pretty informative discussion on the Microcell technology AT&T will be deploying later this year. It may be right for some people, it may not... arguing about it on the Internet isn't going to change anyone's opinion.

I'm glad to see the OP is trying to get things back on topic. As for me, I'm undecided on if I really want to invest the money to get one of these. The coverage around me house is pretty good (4-5 bars 3G), but inside is a completely different story. That said, as long as I can make calls, I'm not too bothered by it as I use my wifi for data.

 

[GarySky]

Nice pictures OP, Keep it up!

 

[cameronjpu]

This average close enough to say ~1500kbps dl, but it seems that ul is throttled at 55. When it hit 55 it stuck there.

Very smart, I'm glad to see they limit the upload speed to limit the impact on the owner of the wifi!

 

[nozebleed]

This thing isn't nearly as cool as i initially thought it was.
So basically it's only for people that have like zero bars of coverage in the house. I can't see it being useful for anyone else or for anything else whatsoever.

this was me. sometimes i would even catch myself staring at "Searching...." for 10 mins, then AT&T would pop up, Id quick try and make a call, then if i wasnt lucky, itd drop.

This is a VERY niche device for a hefty sum to make up for at&t's spotty coverage, which disappoints me cause I misunderstood what it does when I first read about it and thought it would be really sweet.

Exactly. For someone that isnt home alot, or has 1, 2 bars most of the time, yeah it probably wouldnt be worth your time and money. For me, I live kinda out there so if someone called Id be running upstairs standing next to a window. And I have money to blow so whatever...

This thread has completely lost itself. At one point, it was actually a really good forum post. But all this pointless bickering has ruined what was a pretty informative discussion on the Microcell technology AT&T will be deploying later this year. It may be right for some people, it may not... arguing about it on the Internet isn't going to change anyone's opinion.

I'm glad to see the OP is trying to get things back on topic. As for me, I'm undecided on if I really want to invest the money to get one of these. The coverage around me house is pretty good (4-5 bars 3G), but inside is a completely different story. That said, as long as I can make calls, I'm not too bothered by it as I use my wifi for data.

thank you sir. the ignore button only comes out once in a blue moon, sad i had to use it on my own thread.