If you sign up for the plan, you get a $100 rebate against the femto. Separately, the firm offers a $20-per-month unlimited domestic calling option, but that fee applies to each cellular line, even in a family calling plan. However, the MicroCell uses the 3.6 flavor, and AT&T says it will take until year's end to get the backhaul to cell base stations to handle 7.2 on its macro network.)ĪT&T charges $149.99 for its femto with no add-ons, purely for coverage. (AT&T sells several phones, including the iPhone 3GS, which support the HSPA 7.2 standard for 7.2 Mbps of raw downstream data. The AT&T femtocell can handle four simultaneous voice and data calls, as well as push data out at a raw rate up to 3.6 Mbps using HSPA 3.6. That will change. AT&T has the technological advantage with its 3G MicroCell. Nor, to my knowledge and that of the several industry executives and analysts I spoke with, does any carrier deploying femtocells. None of the carriers currently offers any deal that discounts data, only voice. Now for the nitty gritty: does buying an in-home base station make sense for you? It depends, because each US carrier is approaching these base stations differently, and the capabilities are quite different. While Wi-Fi is in most smartphones, the majority of the market for 3G handsets are so-called 'feature' phones, which run less-capable operating systems, but are improving their browsers and Internet access tools.

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