AT&T Femtocell FAIL
Right about the same time AT&T unleashes its latest marketing battle cry of “97% U.S. Coverage”, they hypocritically release their femtocell product. Femtocell used to be known as Access Point Base Station and is basically a mini cellular station. It provides cellular coverage over a very short distance. Femtocell’s purpose is to expand and to enhance a provider’s cellular coverage in an area(s) where it otherwise would be limited or unavailable. So why would AT&T need something like this while claiming 97% coverage in the United States? Well, obviously Luke Wilson isn’t really an AT&T customer, otherwise he would look a little MORE awkward trying to convince us of AT&T’s claims of blanketing U.S. coverage.
Before I start to bash AT&T and it’s femtocell launch…I want to say that technically, it’s a great idea! Think about it. You’re a provider who has some spots in the country where you lack adequate cell coverage. You have customers that while frustrated, continue to pay for your service in these areas. They have broadband at home, can add a femtocell unit and suddenly expand your footprint, provide them (and their neighbors) better coverage on your behalf. All of this while not even impacting your infrastructure since the traffic from the femotocell rides over your broadband…which could be AT&T DSL or possibly some other provider!
Awesome huh? It could be…except AT&T decided that they had a better idea on how to implement the program. For the low low price of $150, you too can help AT&T improve their network! So when you buy and install the femtocell device, and with your cell traffic now going over your Comcast broadband connection, you don’t get charged minutes on your service plan…right? I mean, the minutes you are charged for on your plan are basically to pay for the AT&T cellular infrastructure. Not so fast, even when using your newly paid for mini-cell station, AND providing the backhaul, you are still charged as if you were using the AT&T network. :-/ …well at least your friends and neighbors can take advantage of your new (and paid for) mini-cell site right? well, no. kinda. You have a limited number (10) of users that you can add via the web to access your site. But you have to manually add/remove users, making this functionality a real PITA.
Will Smith of Tested.com (former MaxPC fame) articulated his frustration much better than I was able to. Read his rant here.
Should AT&T give this device to current subscribers for free? Perhaps no. There needs to be *some* barrier to prevent everyone (read: people who don’t need it) from requesting one. $20, $30, $50? Here is what I would do: Customers that are in *known* fringe areas and have confirmed logged complaints against service coverage problems should be issues the device for free. Others, well, how about $30. AND, all calls over the femtocell should be service plan minute-FREE. Access to the device should also be controlled by the owner, since they also have to pay for their broadband and should be able to determine who is able to piggy-back onto it. There should be a setting to make the device totally OPEN, and another to set connectivity restrictions, but not by specific device, maybe by a max number; 10, 20, 50, 100. All you need is to be in a densly populated area and have 1,000 users connect to your cell station and consume all your bandwidth.
Just think though, if AT&T would do this correctly, they would be patching the holes in their network, increase consumer loyalty, and save on infrastructure costs. But instead, some product dude sitting in their cubical is being pressed to meet numbers to fill in the gaps from lost POTS revenue. :-/
AT&T FTW! NOT!
