Is the 3G MicroCell compatable with AT&T Fixed Wireless service?

@FWcellChat - on the back of the box for the MicroCell it states, "Fixed broadband service, such as DSL, fiber, or cable (1.5Mbps downstream and 256kbps upstream minimum) and a dedicated ethernet port on your modem or router. Not compatible with satellite or mobile broadband". That is also stated on page 4 of the manual. Mobile broadband is considered wireless broadband. The reason it doesn't work is that latency, lag, environmental interferences, jitter, etc. are just too variable, among other reasons. VoIP is much more sensitive and unforgiving to those types of issues than your internet connection.

As we have been suggesting all along, WiFi-C is the preferred method now when in-home coverage is weak or non-existent because of the discontinuance and eventual shutdown of the the MicroCell service. 

OttoPylot, your last reply is a shotgun answer.  Even my old network provided plenty of downstream and upstream bandwidth.  The latency I am seeing on the new Fixed Wireless setup is running about 35/45 ms.  Not great, but not that bad either.  The MicroCell will not connect at all to the network.  If it were just poor performance on the new network, I would expect to see it connect and then drop.  Maybe stay connected but provide poor voice service.  A total lack of connection suggests to me that something else is going on.  I do understand that WiFi calling is the new solution, but I like to know why something does not work; x causes y which results in failure.  I did not want to leave the impression that I thought I understood the root cause of the connection failure.  The MicroCell worked very well and provided great coverage.  I would have been happy to continue using it until it went EOL.

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@FWcellChat wrote:

I was never able to get my 3G micro-cell tower to work thru the AT&T Fixed Wireless network.  To be clear, it is not that it does not work well, it does not work at all.  I did not talk directly to AT&T to find out exactly why it can not make a connection to the internet.

My solution is to stop trying to use the tower.  I have switched to using the WiFi calling feature on my iPhone 8 and that seems to work just fine so far.

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions!

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So basically you confirmed @OttoPylot was correct in post 2 and here you are 9 posts later ??  

@FWcellChat - your question is moot. Cisco/AT&T designed the MicroCell for land-based internet service only. Satellite or any type of wireless internet service is not reliable, and obviously in the case of AT&T's new Fixed Wireless service, does not work at all. I've given you all of the reasons for that that I am allowed to. There are security reasons as well. The 45ms latency alone should give you a clue. If your latency bounces around, which I'm sure it does, the VoIP servers just can't handle that variability and won't allow a connection.

Bottom line. The MicroCell will not work with the Fixed Wireless service, and there is nothing that AT&T is going to do about that. You'll just have to accept it and move on. There's nothing more that can be done. I'm sorry.

Agreed.  There's more to VOIP than just latency numbers.  You have not posted any VOIP test metrics for your connection that I've seen here so it would appear to me that you have no idea what your jitter, packet loss, packet delay or other test results are.  Poor test results of any of these metrics on your internet connection can prevent the Mcell from establishing a reliable connection.  It could be router settings too that are preventing you from connecting now.

We can't answer your question as to the failure of your Mcell to connect via Fixed Wireless.  WiFi-C is the future and it works for you.  Move on.

The last two responses were over the top.  Are you two trying to be helpful or prove how smart you are and how ignorant I am?  Folks come here to be helped, not brow beaten.

But to answer the question about VOIP test results.  I ran a few tests.  I am seeing an MOS score of 4.4.  Jitter average was 8ms.  According to the VOIPreview.org site I test out green across the board.

@FWcellChat - we are trying to help but there is nothing more to help you on. The MicroCell will not work AT&T's Fixed Wireless Network. Period. We've given you some reasons why that may be but the bottom line is that the MicroCell is not recognized on the Fixed Wireless Network for specific reasons only known to AT&T. Maybe that will change if Fixed Wireless becomes popular, but with the discontinuance of MicroCell sales, and eventual service shutdown altogether, AT&T is not going to invest any more time in the MicroCell. I just hope that WiFi-C works over the Fixed Wireless Network because we haven't seen any reports yet either way. WiFi-C does use two of the same four ports that are required for the MicroCell so time will tell.

VoipReview.org's speed test is inadequate compared to the detail that the 8x8 website test provides.  There simply isn't enough information provided in ViopReview.org's test to really determine the quality of your internet connection.  You should go to 8x8's website and run their test and report the results under the "Advanced" tab here so we can analyze the data.  Check out Otto's Tech Guide for details.

From what little data you posted, if that jitter average is correct, it's above the acceptable limit of 5 msec for good VOIP communication.  Jitter can be positive or negative so instantaneous spikes in either direction can cancel each other out in the average.  I've seen spikes run 5 times or more higher than the average jitter value.  You could be experiencing spikes of 25 msec or more with that  5 msec average very easily.  That degree of jitter can definitely cause problems with your Mcell connection.  That MOS score is a joke if your jitter is that high so I wouldn't put much faith in that score.

I re-read our posts and I fail to see what you're so upset at.  No one was belittling you.  It's unfortunate that Fixed Wireless doesn't play well with the Mcell but that's just the way it is.  WiFi Calling is AT&T's solution for augmenting coverage in areas of poor cell tower coverage and the Mcell is going away.  You have a solution with WiFi-C that apparently works but it will be interesting to see how well it performs over time on a Fixed Wireless connection.  We can't tell you why you can't make your Mcell work with Fixed Wireless.  I can tell you for certain that AT&T doesn't give a rip about the Mcell anymore so you won't be getting any answers from them either.

@Avedis53 - I agree. I think it’s a dead issue. We would like to help but WiFi Internet is just not going to work.