Tutor
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7 Messages
Do not buy a Microcell. They are not fit for purpose.
I have owned 3 Microcells, and each one has lasted just over 12 months before they just stop working. Mine just died, again. IMO this is outrageous on soooo many fronts.
Customer Service is no help. They simply advize to buy a new one. I've already spent around $600 to make up for AT&T's lousy coverage in my area (greater Boston, MA).
Out of desperation, I just bought a "used" one on Ebay and unfortunately the original owner did not deactivate prior to selling. And for some reason is unable (or unwilling) to deactivate for me. So I called AT&T today and they gave me some blabla story about not being able to determine who the owner was in order for them to deactivate the device. Ofcourse they know who originally activated it. And ofcourse they can deactivate it. They just don't want to so that I have to spend another $150 to buy a new one! Like I said....OUTRAGEOUS.
Net net, I strongly advize agaist buying one of these. Try Verizon or a carrier different instead. They currently offer lots of incentives to move from AT&T. You'll be better off in the end, and maybe AT&T will get the message.
OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.2K Messages
9 years ago
Without explaining to us how you have setup your MicroCell, your LAN setup, ISP, etc it's hard to determine what the cause of your issues are. What exactly do you mean they stopped working? Voice quality deteriorated, dropped calls, complete unit failure (no lights), what? I have a DPH-151 that I've had for a few years and it still works like it did the day I bought it. I recently acquired the new DPH-154 and it works just fine.
It is possible for support to deactivate a MicroCell for use by another customer but they are very reluctant to do that for legal reasons. If the original owner refuses to deactivate it then there is something amiss here. Deactivation is nothing more than going to your myATT page and hitting deactivate.
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Canary-man
Tutor
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7 Messages
9 years ago
For some reason the seller was not able to deactivate. I have no idea why but perhaps someone died. Either way, AT&T absolutely do have the ability to deactiviate the device, they just don't want to. Very frustrating.
Each of the units suffered hardware failures. In each case that was the conclusion after literally hours on the phone with AT&T technical support.
Overall, working with AT&T on these problems has proven to be hyper frustrating and a huge time sink. The one redeeming feature of this has been that I am quite sure that AT&T made a huge loss on each of the Microcell's that they sold me given how many hours of customer service time were consumed.
I stand by my recommendation to avoid the Microcell and AT&T more generally if you have a choice.
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OttoPylot
ACE - Expert
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24.2K Messages
9 years ago
It's your choice to choose whichever provider you want to go with.
You didn't read my response correctly. Yes, AT&T can deactivate a device but for legal reasons they are reluctant to do so. Deactivating is a very simple thing to do so there seems to be something odd, and suspicious, about what the seller is saying.
As far as losing money, the 3G Femtocell market is still very healthy, here and abroad. ZyXEL, for example, saw a very strong 3G femtocell market last year and is predicting this year and beyond to be strong as well. The largest deployment worldwide is in the US (e.g. AT&T) and in Europe, Free France and Vodafone. Some market analyists are prediciting 3.5 to 4 million units to be shipped worldwide with approximately 10 million units already in use today worldwide.
All of the mfrs have proprietary chipsets and firmware in their units depending on whether it's a GSM or a CDMA network. Some have obviously done a better job than others. You still haven't told us what was wrong with your 3 MicroCell's and who your provider is or what kind of service you have so it's difficult to ascertain what the problem was. Three MicroCell's in three years is definitely out of the norm.
Given the above, AT&T's "loss" on your MicroCell's is insignificant.
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