ATT Microcell question

[jldoom]

Hey guys, here's my dilemma. Before the LTE towers were put up in the New York Area, I was using a third party LTE switch on/off to avoid the radio signal problems that the Skyrocket had when connecting to the service. I had no problem with calls/text messages while at home once I figured this out.

NOW; the LTE towers are up, LTE service is awesome outside of my apartment. Calls wont go through, or I'll receive text messages and voicemail like 3 hours later. The afore mentioned 3rd party LTE switch on/off now doesn't work at all with the phone and I cannot switch off the LTE radio.

I spoke with ATT representative which was very nice and tried to help me with the problem, of course as the last resort, she mentioned the Microcell tower which brings me to the point of my post (finally lol)

Do any of you guys have the Microcell 3g tower at home and does it work fine with the Skyrocket? I honestly don't care about the LTE speeds, as long as I am able to get service. I love the phone and it's all customized so I don't really want to get a regular Galaxy SII, but if worst comes to worst, I'll have to do that.

 

[btc0526]

Try and search how to manually turn off lte. There should be an easy wayvjustvlike the t-bolt and rezound

 

[jldoom]

It's disabled for the American Version of the skyrocket. I've read with the bells rogers service its there but the option isn't here.

There are also custom roms that allow you to do that Ive read but I'm not sure if it will work with my problem. Besides I'm having trouble understanding how to flash a custom rom (my phone's already rooted though)

This seems like the next best option besides just downgrading to the OG samsung galaxy s2.

 

[I Monarch]

The Microcell will work fine with your device. As long as it's an AT&T branded device, you won't have any problems connecting to a 3G Microcell.

 

[artofdesign]

I've heard mixed reviews on the MC. Interested to see more users takes...

 

[vdubpower]

mine has made wonders, where i lived, i could get 0 bars with any phone, it would barely even go on the edge

with the microcell all is better, iphone or skyrocket
but the range isntall that great,

make sure they give it for free

 

[devilsushi]

My Microcell hijacks the phone so it in a sense overrides the LTE signal and receives the Femtocell broadcast. I live in a area with moderate to so so 3G and LTE and I have no complaints as I'm also not paying monthly for a MC. Range is limited as vdubpower says, but its better than no reception. Remember a MC acts as a broadcast relay antenna and not a signal booster. Also might want to run a VOIP test on the network to see if it can handle the stresses a MC brings.

VOIP Test:
8x8, Inc. VoIP and Broadband Speed Test

 

[jldoom]

Thanks for the response guys;
@anothernewphone yeah it's an ATT skyrocket.

@devilsushi thanks for the explanation, that was my main concern and the tech that was helping me on the phone (as nice as she was trying to help me figure out the problem) had no clue if this would work at all with my phone in my apartment. Seeing as the problem is not that I'm not being able to connect to an LTE network at all, but that even if its extremely faint it will connect and NOT switch to the 3G signal even though it's stronger. Thanks for the link to that website as well, showing I should have no problem using VOIP.

@vdubpower The same tech put in a note on my account but I'm not too sure if it will allow me to get it for free, but she did say to ask about a promotional deal going on at corporate stores where they were giving them for free for special cases like these. Unless you know of a way to get it for certain? lol please share!

I'm going to head down to one of the corporate stores and find out what they say. Funny how my service was better without the phone actually receiving an LTE signal :-\

 

[vdubpower]

basically told them i was switching to verizon and taking my 5 phones with me

been a customer since they were called Pac bell back in 1999

told them it was cocka that their service was so bad

the guy was cool, basically took 290 off my bill,
usually my bill is around 250 is, 5 smart phones with basic data plan, 2000min family rollover plan,

 

[Mr.Gadget]

mine has made wonders, where i lived, i could get 0 bars with any phone, it would barely even go on the edge

with the microcell all is better, iphone or skyrocket
but the range isntall that great,

make sure they give it for free

I also have 5 phones on the plan. The biggest culprit is my wife's iPhone 4S. It drops calls, an honest 90% of the time. We've replaced it three times. So, Apple and my AT&T store told me to call and get a MicroCell. After haggling with them for half hour, they decided that I could have it for $99 in exchange for comping me my messaging for 6 months for a total bill credit of $180. So, I took it.
The retentions rep told me that it sometimes will not work well with the iPhones, so this is our last chance at keeping AT&T. I hope it works... I don't want to haggle with them to let us out of our contract due to insufficient service. She told me it would be a $900 charge to cancel right now. That will be a cold day..., so I hope this works!
I'm going to check around for folks that have had to early terminate with AT&T and see what their experience is...

 

[JustLeft]

I have the AT&T microcell, which I received free from AT&T. I have 3 iPhones and 1 Galaxy S2 SR. The iPhones connect without issue to the microcell. The SR has been a mixed bag. Sometimes it auto connects, other times it doesn't. When I saw your note I checked my SR and it was showing zero signal bars and didn't indicate it was connected to the microcell. I dialed a number, it went through, all of a sudden I see full bars and it is now connected to the microcell. For me it's a mixed bag.

 

[devilsushi]

The microcell can only support 5 mobile phones at any given time. If you have connectivity issues either power cycle the MC or your mobile. This is the case if there is a hiccup in broadband service, torrent downloading, HD media streaming on the network or just not really seeing eye to eye with the MC. Also putting the phone in Airplane mode and back to its normal phase does not remedy the connectivity issue. Rebooting usually fixes this issue.


Also on a side note Wi-Ex is selling their signal booster at expo price for a few days for those who could not make it to Macworld iWorld. This is independent of a MC and amplifies uplink and downlink. zBoost works on all spectrums minus wimax, LTE and nextel/boost bands.


If interested the zBoost for the car is $99 and the home/office is going for $179 Wi-Ex :: zBoost Signal Boosters or sales@wi-ex.com or call 800-871-1612 to secure the expo pricing.

zBoost should be a good solution if you have multiple carriers and would rather not be locked in to a contract while having a MC on ones account. This doesn't use broadband or GPS to better itself so you wouldn't have to add and remove guest numbers often on your MC's access roster.

 

[dmcouch1975]

my skyrocket i just update ICS and I did this before I got microcell. The first 2 days I had microcell it worked on my phone and now it don't. I got a new one but it is still not working but my wifes One X from htc is. Why is this

 

[patrick533]

The Microcell works good for no signal, but if you send a lot of large MMS messages, it slows to a crawl. Also the range on a Microcell is good for a room or two.

I have 2 Microcells that I used to use in a ZERO coverage area(big house), now I have good 4G(not LTE) coverage at my new house.

If they ever fixed the MMS thing, I have a part of my house that could use a Microcell but I will go out of my way not to use a Microcell. Even WiFi does not cure the MMS bug.......

Except for the large MMS issue, you never know you are using a Microcell unless you look at the screen.