Background

I bought an iPhone 3G when they first came out, a little over two years ago, and signed a two-year contract with AT&T. The iPhone was nice, until I left it in my pocket and it went through the wash machine. Didn’t work so well after that, but thankfully I was able to get a couple hundred for it on eBay for parts. I needed a new phone, and the AT&T version of the Google Nexus One had just been released (during that small window when you could buy it unlocked directly from Google), so I ordered one up. Swap my SIM from the iPhone into the Nexus One and I’m up and running and all is great.

Flash forward a bit more than a year and I’m finally out of my AT&T contract (on the same plan but month-to-month now), my Nexus One is still working great, and I’ve just moved from my Wisconsin to Florida with my girlfriend. We got an apartment and didn’t realize until the first day in it that neither of us could get an AT&T signal! We were lucky to get one bar next to the windows, which made incoming calls impossible, and outgoing calls improbable. We looked at cell signal boosters that put an antenna outside your window, and try to grab and boost what signal they can, but they’re expensive starting at $200-$300. I then remembered reading about the AT&T 3G MicroCell.

The AT&T 3G MicroCell is a Cisco manufactured mini-cell tower that you connect to your broadband Internet. It acts like a cell tower in your home or office, giving you coverage for roughly 40 feet from the device. You determine what devices are allowed to access the MicroCell, and it works invisibly in the background, giving you 5 bars for around $200.

Part One: Us vs AT&T

My girlfriend’s work depends on telephone access, so we went to an AT&T retail outlet to look for a MicroCell. The store we went to didn’t have any in stock, so they checked nearby and found one at another location. The salesperson mentioned they used to give these away to customers with this same issue, so on the way to the next store, my girlfriend got on the phone with AT&T support to try to get a free one. The representative confirmed that they used to give them away, and after lots of discussion, agreed we should be able to have one without charge. She added a note to her account and said to go to the store to pick it up, which we did.

Upon arriving there, the salesperson found our story hard to believe, and after checking the notes got in touch with the support representatives supervisor. The supervisor listened to the recorded conversation, and determined that we “misunderstood” what the rep said, and that indeed, AT&T would not be giving us a free MicroCell. Back to the car and back on the phone with AT&T support, we got a different support rep who was also sympathetic to our cause. He agreed that he could not authorize giving us a free MicroCell, but that a store manager could, and that he would be happy to contact the manager of our store to put in a good word. 20 minutes later we got a callback letting us know that he had spoken with the manager, and the manager had agreed to give us a free MicroCell!

Back to the store to meet the manager with the biggest smiles we could muster. He had a salesperson retrieve the MicroCell from the back room and put it on the counter while the  manager looked at my girlfriends account details and the notes generated so far on this issue. Just when we thought all was good-to-go, the manager starts asking questions, and the big problem emerges. My girlfriends phone is an older 2G model, not 3G, and the 3G MicroCell requires a 3G phone. Oh No! What to do? We quickly decide that for now, I’ll trade phones with her, since mine is 3G. We let the manager know and he asks what kind of phone I have. I show him my Nexus One, he looks at the screen and says “Says here you’re supposed to have an iPhone”. He’s not happy. After he and the salesperson go in the back room for a minute, they return to let us know they cannot approve the free MicroCell unless one of us bought an AT&T branded 3G phone.

Part Two: Me vs MicroCell

Dejected, we went home and both considered switching service. My girlfriend even bought a used T-Mobile Android phone that she planned on activating as soon as her AT&T minutes were used up. I looked at other services, but with some travel to Europe on the horizon, I knew my Nexus One was a good phone to keep, and I didn’t want to phones, so I broke down and looked for a used 3G MicroCell on eBay. I was able to get one in a late-night bid for $110, and a few days later it arrived at my door. Finally, I though, an end to this hell. Little did I know what lie ahead.

I followed the directions that came with the unit, which require you first activate it on the AT&T website. After putting in the serial number, I got a warning in big red letters that said this unit was already in the database, and I needed to call AT&T support. Not good. I called them and the rep said the original owner first needs to deactivate the unit before I can activate it. I had purchased it through a store on eBay, so I was quite certain that the original owner was not the person I bought it from, and told her so. She talked with a manager and returned with the news. Yes, she can deactivate it from their end, but at the time, the software needed to do that was not working. I would have to try again tomorrow, and if it didn’t work, a fall back was to send it to another department that could manually do it.

I called back the next day, and explained my story, and the rep again said that he can’t activate it from their end, the original owner had to. I assured him that there were in fact two ways to do it, so after a talk with a manager, he confirmed he could take care of it, but would have to contact the original owner through his account info. Thankfully, that didn’t involve me having to wait for a response, he was able to immediately deactivate the MicroCell, and when I clicked on the webpage, it successfully made it to the next step. Hurray! I entered my information, including my address so a 911 call could be properly routed. It should be noted that MicroCells can only be used in specific areas, and that there is a built-in GPS that will enforce this, so check the AT&T 3G MicroCell website first before even attempting any of this! Finally, I was instructed to connect my MicroCell to my router, plug in the power, and wait for up to 90 minutes while the unit activated.

About 20 minutes later, I received an email and a text confirming that my MicroCell was activated. The problem, though, was that the lights on the front of the unit were still flashing, and my phone didn’t have signal. I left the unit sit for some time, AT&T troubleshooting pages said the process could actually take up to 24 hours. After a while, though, I noticed a pattern in the lights. Power light comes on green, Ethernet light comes on green, then GPS and 3G lights flash intermittently for about 3 minutes. GPS light goes solid green while the 3G lights still flashes for about 20 seconds, then the power light flashes red twice quickly while the other lights go off, then the power light goes solid green and the process starts over again. Not good. I swapped Ethernet cables, no improvement. I directly connected the MicroCell to my Comcast modem, same problem. I let it sit overnight, and the next day, it was still doing the same thing.

I got back on the phone with AT&T support and explained my issue. I explained to the rep that I bought the unit on eBay, and what was happening. He agreed that this was strange, and was probably a hardware problem with the MicroCell itself. Since I was not the original owner, I didn’t know if it was in warrantee or not, but he agreed that due to how long these units have been available, it probably was still in warranty, and though they didn’t have to, he was going to authorize a warranty exchange for the MicroCell. Wow, I wasn’t expecting that! He scheduled a replacement MicroCell to be shipped in two days free of cost as long as I returned my old unit in the same packaging with a pre-paid label. I agreed, and two days later the replacement unit arrived.

I quickly opened the box to reveal the replacement, a refurbished AT&T 3G MicroCell. The refurbished part didn’t bother me, I just want it to work, so I went to the AT&T site to start the activation process, and was greeted by a familiar screen: This unit exists in the database, call support! I called AT&T Support, explained I just got the warranty replacement, it wasn’t deactivated properly before it was sent to me, and she was quickly able to get it removed from the database and I was onto completing activation. It told me to plug in the unit which I did, and then I waited. A few minutes later I received an email and text confirming activation was complete, but the lights were still flashing. Another couple minutes passed when I saw the power light flash red twice, and the unit reset itself. Uggghhh.

I left the unit overnight again, just to be sure, but in the morning it was still resetting itself every 4 minutes or so. Back on the phone with A&T Support. I explained the entire situation, and she concluded that the only remaining component that hadn’t been swapped was the power supply, since they had only shipped me a replacement MicroCell, which didn’t include the power supply. They don’t have the power supply available as a separate part they can ship, so she said she would ship an entirely new MicroCell kit. Since I hadn’t even had time to ship the old unit back yet, she had to get special permission to ship another to me, and then informed me it would be 4-6 days to arrive unless I wanted to pay $14.99 for two-day shipping. I pointed out that the last unit was shipped free to me via two-day and asked if that could be done again. After checking with a manager, she reminded me that they were bending a lot of rules, but they wanted to resolve this, and the manager had approved free two-day shipping. Yay!

The next day, the unit arrived, ahead of schedule! It was a full kit, looking like the one I had purchased on eBay, and appeared to be all new parts. I pushed all the old equipment aside, and went to the AT&T website to activate the new unit. The activation manager took the serial number the first time without complaining, and eventually told me to plug in the unit. I connected everything and held my breath. About 10 minutes later I received the now familiar email and text confirming the unit was activated. Not ready to believe it, I went over and looked at the lights on the unit. All solid green! This was the first time I had seen that, and it appeared to represent a properly functioning unit! I looked at  my phone and I had five bars, and the service was listed as AT&T MicroCell. Success! My girlfriend went outside, since she still doesn’t have signal inside and her phone doesn’t work with the MicroCell, and made a call to me. Ring Ring Ring, it works! For the first time, I received a call in my new apartment, and was able to walk around with my phone and have a conversation. Five bars in every room, every corner.

Conclusion

So, in the end, it appears a bad power supply dragged out the second half of this saga. If AT&T had better coverage in my area, none of this would have been necessary. Since they don’t, at least they have a hardware option that can fix it, though it sucks having to pay to fix their shortcoming. As far as AT&T’s employees go, though I understand his reasoning, I was pretty upset with the manager that declined giving us the free MicroCell, we left that store feeling like we were outcasts. All of the AT&T support people I spoke with, and their supervisors, were great, and went out of their way to help, even bending rules on occasion. They didn’t have to replace my eBay purchased unit, they didn’t have to give me free two-day shipping, they didn’t have to ship an entirely new kit before I returned the old unit. But they did. Yes, the process was a bit hellish, but in the end, it worked out for me. Bravo AT&T.