Microcells

[denverpilot]

Anyone here using microcell tech to "fix" the various Carrier's cell network coverage holes?

Thanks to another pilot friend who wasn't using his anymore, I'm testing out an AT&T Microcell.

So far getting it set up at work (where we really need it) was impossible due to the wimpy GPS chipset on board. It requires GPS to know if it's truly in an AT&T coverage area. Handheld GPS in same location is sensitive enough to maintain a good lock on the cluster, but not this piece of junk Cisco built for AT&T.

So I brought it home thinking that there's a lot of dropped calls at my house as the phone attempts to hand off from the cell site northeast of my house to southwest.

First couple of calls did the same thing. Microcell indicator on the iPhone 4. 4-5 "bars" throughout the house. Call completes and in the middle of the call the phone or network decides to hand me off to the spotty outdoor regular cell tower as I wander around the house. Call drops.

The docs clearly state that once a call hands off away from your microcell it won't hand back to it.

So far, seems like a pretty shoddy implementation. Mainly centered on when the phone/network decide to switch you back to a real cell tower.

Reading online, this happens to a number of folks. People using them where there's no regular cell network coverage at all think they're great. Everywhere else, most folks say they're busted.

Data through the microcell as well as calls still count against your "minutes" but you can pay AT&T $20 a month for the privilege of providing them your bandwidth and get unlimited voice calls, but not data. That's still metered or not, per your data plan.

Anyway, it's been an interesting tech exercise for one day so far. Will see if it gets any better.

Probably would be easier to switch to Verizon who covers home, work, and the airport... All the places that matter to me... Very well here.

Anyone else playing with these?

 

[flyingcheesehead]

So far getting it set up at work (where we really need it) was impossible due to the wimpy GPS chipset on board. It requires GPS to know if it's truly in an AT&T coverage area.

Gawd, really?!? Why do they care? If you're not in their coverage area, at least you're still providing them with revenue while covering the back-end costs too... Sheesh.

 

[TripleZ]

I have a ATT microcell. The GPS is actually for the 911 services, but I agree, it's weak. Mine took over an hour to set up the first time, and it hands calls off to the spotty tower to the north as well.

Overall, not too thrilled. In addition, I'll have problems receiving or making calls. Sometimes I have to initiate an outgoing call 2,3 or 4 times before it will get past the dialing hang.

I have wifi, so the data part doesn't matter to me, but I'd like a reliable signal.

 

[Everskyward]

Anyone else playing with these?

I've thought about it but so far haven't done anything. Coverage has never been great inside my house although it's better than it was before. My interim solution has been to get a Google Voice number that rings my home phone and cell at the same time. Now if I can only remember to give it out to people. I thought about switching to Verizon which has better coverage here since they put up a new tower, however the situation is reversed at the SF condo where AT&T is much better.

 

[AdamZ]

I clicked on this thinking it was about small thunder storms.

 

[denverpilot]

Gawd, really?!? Why do they care? If you're not in their coverage area, at least you're still providing them with revenue while covering the back-end costs too... Sheesh.

FCC regulation actually. The thing can't be allowed to transmit anywhere AT&T isn't licensed for the band(s) the device works on. Thus, you can't take it out of the country, or other things that'd get AT&T in trouble with an incumbent carrier either.

The comment that it's for 911 is false. You enter the service address (you can have more than one entered and activate whichever one you like) into the website when you set it up. That address is immediately cross referenced in real-time through a 3rd party E911 provider when you hit "Send". If you typoed it, the registration process throws an error if it isn't a registered 911 service address in the E911 database.

The device will work just fine if you move it away from that registered E911 address if it's in an AT&T coverage area, but 911 calls will be dispatched to the registered address. (And I'd bet $20 that the third party and not real ES dispatchers answer the call at first to certify the address anyway, just like Vonage and most Land-based VoIP services do.)

 

[flyingcheesehead]

FCC regulation actually. The thing can't be allowed to transmit anywhere AT&T isn't licensed for the band(s) the device works on. Thus, you can't take it out of the country, or other things that'd get AT&T in trouble with an incumbent carrier either.

But GPS, required? I don't buy that being necessary. GeoIP should be enough. GPS is getting ridiculous, and a bit too big-brotherish.

(And I'd bet $20 that the third party and not real ES dispatchers answer the call at first to certify the address anyway, just like Vonage and most Land-based VoIP services do.)

Ugh... I got that when I had a Sprint cell phone. I saw a brawl happening and tried to call it in. They asked where I was. "3400 block of North Oakland." "No sir, what city are you in?"

FWIW, I have called 911 numerous times (you see a lot of drunk drivers when you're doing 130,000 miles a year with half of it at night) on both Verizon and AT&T and always got real dispatchers. Sometimes I still had to be transferred, as usually you'd get the 911 dispatch for whatever county you were in and places like Ohio will transfer you to the State Patrol if you're on the turnpike (the County Mounties probably can't afford the tolls ) but they were always real dispatchers.

 

[denverpilot]

GeoIP is easy to spoof. Join my WiFi here at the house sometime and I'll convince your phone it's in another State... Until it gets a real GPS fix.

It's DNS based, no DNSSec is being utilized (yet) and intercept/change of unauthenticated UDP packets is child's play.

It's also easy to build a transparent whole-network VPN and your device here at my house will have a public IP of any Linux box I have root on in the world. Piece of cake. NAT plus VPN equals GeoIP being totally owned.

I doubt it meets the strict requirements of the FCC and transmitter locations.

I'm sure putting a GPS in it such that it couldn't be tampered with (easily) was the only way the FCC would let them turn loose thousands of GSM transmitters to the world in $50 boxes (the original price, now $100).

It may even pick specific frequencies or bands by georeferencing it's location. It also probably puts it's location in a technical troubleshooting database for the interference hunting vans, since transmitters can go bad and start throwing spurs. Most of the RF teat gear these days will auto-populate a list of all known FCC transmitters within X miles when hunting for interference sources, tune to the ones that are closest, and quantify how often or if they're on-air, etc. Expensive tools, but the FCC definitely has them as dovarious other three-letter agencies. (They also work well for catching new/unlicensed transmitters and intentional jammers besides unintentional signal sources.)

Agreed on normal cell calls to 911. The network assumes you're traveling. Usually goes to State Patrol or County agency closest to the tower's intended coverage area.

A micro-cell runs afoul of the E911 regulations in that it must provide a place to send a cop on a 911 hang-up, since it's supposedly "geographically fixed" and not serving an entire neighborhood.

Even then, just like the VoIP providers, I had to cluck through multiple pages of legalese to hit "Accept and Agree" that 911 services "could be delayed" if the right address wasn't registered when setting this thing up.

I hear a lot of "announcement only" dispatches by Denver PD saying a cell phone in the "1000 block of XYZ Street" just did a 911 hang-up. The officers usually drive by and listen with car windows open for screams and/or look for anything fishy. But they can't do much with the Geo-data the current cell networks provide. It doesn't get accurate enough to know which apartment in a complex that a hang-up came from.

Land-line hang-ups, typically get an officer knocking on your front door.

(In both cases they try to call back. The above is when no one answered the return call.)