iPhone Not Connecting to Microcell

[convergent]

I have had the AT&T Microcell now for about a month.  When it works, it works great.  But for some reason, it gets to where it won't connect to my phone.  I am right now sitting here with my iPhone sitting on top of the Microcell and yet it still won't connect.  On the iPhone, I've tried rebooting it, turning WiFi on and off, turning 3G on and off, and turning flight mode on and off... and still I sit with no bars.  Sometimes it will work fine... sometimes it won't.  I can spend 15 or 20 minutes and restart the Microcell and that will work sometimes.  I believe this is happening with our other non-iPhone phones too, but I don't use them every day so have the most knowledge about my iPhone.  It is very, very frustrating because the coverage here is so bad that when the Microcell isn't kicking in then its hit or miss on calls and texts.  Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?  I need reliable service here.

[AnClar]

iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS here...both running iOS 4.3.2.  Both are working fine with the MCell.  It's bizarre (but totally the case it seems) that there is just no consistency with these problems.  Some folks absolutely cannot get their iPhones to work well with the MCell while others have had no problems at all.  Once again, the deafening silence from AT&T on the MCell makes any problem diagnosis next to impossible.

[patrickhurley]

Turn off cellular data.   Mine now connects fine. 

[MyDogHasFleas]

Basically what happens on the iPhone (I have iPhone 4) is that if it sees a stronger signal from a cell tower than from your MicroCell it will switch over to the cell tower.  And sometimes it will not switch back for quite a while.  I've seen this happen myself.  

What I'd recommend is:  get right next to your MicroCell, put the iPhone in Airplane mode for a few seconds, then back to normal mode.  It should do a new cell signal search and connect up to your MicroCell.  That's always fixed it for me.  

Worst case you might have to reboot the iPhone if it's having an issue.  It happens.  

[jamesboland]

Been struggling to connect to micro-cell for a while now - your tip about switching airplane mode off then on worked!  thanks for the tip

[jdevgrell]

Has anyone found a reliable fix for this yet? I'm having the same exact problems, and have been for awhile. I have two iphone 4's, one with iOS 4.2.1 and one with 4.3.3. The phones can connect fine to the Microcell, but if left overnight, or if we leave the house and come back, neither phone will reconnect to the Microcell unless we cycle airplane mode (or reboot the phone). I've tried connecting the Microcell directly to the modem (instead of the wireless router), and I've tried deleting and then re-activating the Microcell more than once. I haven't yet tried a new SIM card. Does that seem to work? This is really annoying, as we don't have good AT&T coverage here (big surprise), and it's very annoying to have to remember to cycle airplane mode all the time. 

[ajm80031]

Chalk up another user with Microcell connection problems.  I purchased a Microcell yesterday as AT&T reception at our house went from mediocre to practically nonexistent a few months ago.  I set it up as instructed, only to find that our phones (iPhone 3GS models) will only intermittantly connect to it.  Most of the time they connect to the regular AT&T network even though we only get 1 bar at our location.

I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with AT&T tech support today.  The guy had a set troubleshooting list that he wouldn't deviate from, so I walked through the suggested steps.  Despite the fact that the Microcell indicates that it has good GPS and network connections, the troubleshooting script walks you through redoing your network connection into what I believe the support guy called "priority mode".  Basically, this means wiring the Microcell between the cable modem and the router rather than connecting it after the router.  Presumably this is to get your other, unrelated network devices out of the way to make sure they aren't causing problems.  When cabled up in this fashion, the Microcell failed to establish a network connection at all (and yes, I gave it the full 90 minutes they suggest).

I rewired the network back to the original configuration (cable modem<->router<->Microcell) and it establishes the network connection quickly but we're back to extremely intermittent connections to the phones.  I guess I'll call them back tomorrow to find out what the "Plan B" is for troubleshooting, but I'm not holding out a lot of hope -- with them expecting you to wait up to 90 minutes to determine if the Microcell can establish a connection, this could be a really drawn out process.

[hojbjerg]

Did you remember to restart your cable modem when you placed the 3G Microcell between the cable modem and your router?

Sometimes your cable company does not issue an IP address until the cable modem has been power cycled / restarted.

[Mistert2]

This is the same problem I have. Two iPhones iOS 5 (4 and 4s), wake up in the am and it won't connect.

[rlcarroll10]

Both my iphone 3gs and LG worked flawlessly on the microcell for months until the night of April 3, 2012.  Then overnight it went bad.  Iphone won't connect.  LG randomly frequently disconnects and must be restarted to connect.  Obviously "THEY" changed something that night that blew us out of the water.  New SIM cards, new microcell and still acting the same.  Nothing has improved since that fateful night. 

For the last month I have been given AT&T'S "answers" to why the problem exists and now I'm told I'm part of a "national case" studying the problem.  It is really simple.  Check to see what system changes were universally installed on April 3 and reverse them. 

p.s.  Not one commitment for a "call back" regarding any of my three cases I've been assigned over the last month has ever occurred.

HAS ANYONE ELSE EXPERIENCED PROBLEMS OR OTHERWISE BEEN EFFECTED BY THE MYSTERIOUS CHANGE ON APRIL 3/4, 2012?????

[vandew]

i have the same problem.  Iphone just stopped recognizing the Microcell completely and i have zero bars of service at my house.  i have contacted AT&T support via their instant chat twice - they says it's a common problem with recent updates to IOS, they are aware and trying to fix it but have no date for a potential resolution.  they basically said - sucks for you - we dont know how to fix it.   

[OttoPylot]

I think it's service area dependent in some cases. We have 2 iPhone 3GSs and 1 iPhone 4GS and they connect just fine. A couple of old Samsung 3Gs connect fine as well.

[shj]

Same problem.  Checked my phone settings to make sure I had 3G enabled.  I didn't, so I enabled it, and now it works.  Try it.

[bko43]

Where do you do that?  I looked under settings.  Mine works, but my sister is visiting and I can't get her 4S to connect.

[JessicaOh!]

Thank you so much! I also had this frustrating problem and had reset my MC and iphone multiple times without their connecting. (The connection was just suddenly lost 4 days ago after a year or more of working very well.) The first reset of the MC fixed the problem with my husband's phone but I could not make mine connect. I just tried turning airline mode on and off and that fixed it. 

[OttoPylot]

A little late to respond about turning off 3G but that can only be done on a 3GS under Settings -> General -> Network. That feature is not available on a 4S and above.