warning Hi, we've moved to USCANNENBERGMEDIA.COM. Visit us there!

Neon Tommy - Annenberg digital news

Dream The Impossible Dream With The AT&T Microcell

Hillel Aron |
August 26, 2010 | 9:36 p.m. PDT

Editor-at-Large

The AT&T MicroCell could bring cell phone reception to places that couldn't enjoy it before.
The AT&T MicroCell could bring cell phone reception to places that couldn't enjoy it before.
Little known fact: the iPhone makes phone calls.

Don’t believe me? Try it. But first, go somewhere with full bars. Ah yes, there’s the rub.

But finally, there’s some good news for people unfortunate enough to be saddled with AT&T’s disastrous service. It’s called the MicroCell.

For the low, low price of $150, you can buy a box that allows your phone to perform the service that it was originally designed to do: make phone calls. The microcell uses your home’s wi-fi connection and somehow turns that into 3G bars. Shockingly, there’s no monthly fee, one of the few stones that AT&T decided not to draw blood from. And unlike anything AT&T has ever done before, it works (only in certain cities, only for 3G phones).

For as long as I’ve had a cell phone, I’ve gotten horrible cell reception in my house. Silver Lake, Mar Vista, West Hollywood, Echo Park. It didn’t matter. Wherever I lived it was as if I was I was next to a uranium mine. Now, all of a sudden, I’ve been rocketed into the 20th century. I can make phone calls. On my cell phone. In my house. 

I’ve been using this magic box for about a week, and I think I had one call that cut out for a second. In other words, it’s the best cell reception I’ve had in my entire life.

Sure, I shouldn’t have to buy one of these things. And no, this one product doesn’t excuse the monumental incompetence of the company that makes it. But for years, I’ve dreamt about making phone calls from my cell phone in my house. And now, that dream is a reality. 

To reach editor-at-large Hillel Aron, click here.

Follow him on Twitter: @hillelaron.



 

Buzz

Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

Watch USC Annenberg Media's live State of the Union recap and analysis here.

 
ntrandomness