MicroCell End of Life Has Been Announced

While wi-if calling is ok, it's still not reliable where I live. Without my micro cell tower I have absolutely no service at home at all. I'm hoping they do stop supporting and providing them that they boost their current towers in my area or put up more. Switching to another carrier is t an option for me either because they don't have service in my area either.

@LarisaE - If you attempt to use WiFi-C while within range of a MicroCell that you are registered to there will be issues because the phone will preferentially attempt to connect to the 3G signal and not your WiFi signal. Either power off the MicroCell completely, remove your phone number (unless your phone number is the one used to register/activate the MicroCell) or place your phone in Airplane Mode to disable its cellular radio.

WiFi-C is also dependent on the quality of your WiFi signal and is subject to same issues that WiFi in general is.

I doubt very seriously if AT&T is going to put up more towers or increase the signal propagation (that requires FCC approval) just because the MicroCell is at EOL.

If your WiFi Calling is unreliable as you say, then I would offer that your WiFi router is insufficient to cover your home or your ISP service is compromised somehow.  From what you posted, I gather that you are in a rural area with limited internet access options.  Who is your ISP?  What kind of service is it?  Cable, DSL, wireless, satellite?  What is your subscribed bandwidth...ie.  Download and Upload speeds?

Without additional information about your network hardware and ISP, it's hard to determine what your issue is with WiFi-C.  What do you mean by "unreliable" anyway?  Please describe what specifically is happening when you are using WiFi-C.

Both the Mcell and WiFi-Calling require a reliable internet connection in order to work properly.  While your subscribed bandwidth should be adequate for either to operate, it's the quality of your internet connection that appears to be the problem based on your limited information.  Latency (lag), packet loss, packet delay and jitter are all internet metrics that can negatively affect VOIP quality.

It would be helpful to us if you would run the VOIP test outlined in Otto's Tech Guide and post the results here.  I suspect we will see excessive jitter and packet loss since the symptoms you described are an indicator of a poor internet connection.  If that is the case, then you will have to confront Century Link and see if there is anything they can do about it.  Unfortunately, most of the time an ISP will simply claim that the problem isn't theirs and blame AT&T.  If Century Link is your only option for internet service, then I don't know what else you can do.

The only other solution that doesn't require the internet would be a cell signal booster.  These systems have a receiving/transmitting module that you place in a location in your house that gets at least one bar of signal strength.  Some even have a high-gain antenna you mount on the outside of your home to improve reception and transmission.  A second module is centrally located in your house to provide a connection for your phones.  The second module relays the cell phone signal to the rec/tx module, which then amplifies the signal and communicates with the nearest cell tower.  Cel-Fi and weboost make decent boosters but they are expensive and if you get zero bars in your home then even they may not help you.

@LarisaE - if you have internet issues (lags or goes offline) then you will definitely have MicroCell problems. The MicroCell needs to maintain a 24x7 secure VPN connection to the AT&T Mobility servers with a line that is clean enough for VoIP. Only your ISP can correct that. You can run a voiptest (voiptest.8x8.com) and post the results here. Run the test at a couple of different times during the day to get a better average look at your line quality.

My issue with them killing the Microcell and preferring wifi calling is that wifi calling with at&t is horrible.  It doesn't give you the option to prefer wifi calling over a cellular connection an although we can get a couple bars of LTE in spots in our house as soon as you move away from those spots your call drops because it doesn't switch to wifi-c fast enough to keep the call going.  I had planned on turning off my microcell but found wifi-c very unreliable because of this reason.

Also what about people who still use flip phones.  My brother-in-law for example has a company rugged flip phone that of course doesn't support wifi-c.  AT&T needs to keep the microcell around for these devices as long as they are still selling them.......  If they sell non wifi-c devices they need to have a solution for non wifi-c devices in areas without service.  I have 3 people who are regularly at my house who will have no cell reception when at&t turns off my microcell.

@nwhaynes  Agree.  ATT will lose a lot of customers.  T-mobile and Sprint have been bolstering their feeble coverage with mini towers, boosters and Wifi calling for a long time.  Even Verizon is still offering a mini tower and boosters.  But ATT shoots itself in the foot again.  

@nwhaynes - AT&T is not turning off your MicroCell. They will just stop selling them online come Jan. 1st and end official support at the end of next year. The option to automatically choose cellular over WiFi is not AT&T's decision. That is purely a function of the phone mfr.

WiFi-C is, like the MicroCell, is not intended to be a full scale replacement for cellular. It's intention is to augment poor in-home coverage. Handing off has always been an issue, be it MicroCell to tower (and vice versa) or WiFi to cellular. However, in most cases, the handing off of WiFi is much smoother than the MicroCell. Some phones can handle that transition better than others.

My home is in a gray area in that the tower signal is just strong enough as to overcome my WiFi signal (as far as the phone is concerned) but not strong enough to give me a solid cellular connection. That's why we've used the MicroCell for years. However, if I place our phones in Airplane Mode to disable the phones' cellular radio, WiFi-C call quality is much better and the reliability far surpasses the MicroCell. Switching to Airplane Mode is certainly a hassle so we just continue to use the MicroCell with no issues at all.

The MicroCell was designed as a low cost alternative to a true cellular booster for poor in-home coverage, but that was over 10 years ago. Technology is moving forward and the MicroCell has not kept up (still 3G only) and the decision to not keep updating the MicroCell to current technologies is purely a financial decision. More and more people are getting the fancy new phones, and most of them have WiFi-C capability. WiFi-C is not only for poor in-home coverage it's also for areas outside of the home where the cellular signal may be weak or non-existent, but there is a WiFi signal strong enough to connect to.

I agree that the MicroCell issue sucks but I saw this coming a long time ago. As long as AT&T maintains the 24x7 secure VPN connection to the AT&T Mobility servers the MicroCell will still be around after the end of next year. But, if AT&T decides that keeping those ports and resources open can best be used elsewhere, that too will cease to exist.

Customers will either need to consider upgrading their phones next year or look into cellular boosters.

When they finally stop supporting microcells might finally be the time when the open up WiFi Calling on non-AT&T phones.