In the last few months, there have been rumors about 3G MicroCell, an in-home base station for the AT&T network. However, it was not known when AT&T would launch the service into a commercial offering. Now AT&T has launched a detailed website about the service. The website lists all the advantages of the service and also provides a ZIP code availability checker. These are indicative that AT&T will be launching the service very shortly. Charlotte, NC will be the first test market.
The concept behind femtocell is to have a base station at home to allow existing mobiles to work with it without any modifications. Other carriers such as Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile already offer femtocell services or something quite similar.
Sprint and Verizon’s femtocell services support 2G voice only. However, AT&T’s MicroCell supports 3G as well. Since AT&T is targeting home users, it will have to place more emphasis on call quality and unlimited home calling instead of data speeds.
Some information on the pricing is available now. Calling plans cost $10/month for existing customers and $20/month for new customers. The base station will cost $150. If you sign up for the service plan, the base station will cost only $50. AT&T will testing the waters with these prices and so we can expect changes.
The prices are very competitive. Sprint and T-Mobile have similar offerings for $15 and $10/month respectively. In fact, it is cheaper than Vonage and Comcast VoIP. With VoIP, you have to pay per line. However with AT&T, you can place multiple calls at the same time.
AT&T will gain a huge market share with femtocells. These will allow it to penetrate the home segment better.