AT&T is coming late to the femtocell game. The crazy part is that they still think they can get a premium for it. The idea of a femtocell is that you can hook up a mini cellphone tower to your internet connection and get better wireless service inside your home. The AT&T solution only works on 3G phones and lets you register up to 10 phones but only four simultaneous calls or data sessions are supported at the same time.
The real crazy part is that according to a leak on Engadget AT&T wants to charge $20/month for unlimited calling at home. They will lower it to $10 if you have AT&T landline or internet service or they will make it free if you have both which is sort of redundant. Sadly this femtocell also has a GPS chip so it needs to be by a window in North America or else it wont work. That is what I love about T-Mobile’s @Home service since it works anywhere in the world.
Compared to other carriers AT&T seems to be charging a serious premium for you to improve their spotty coverage. Verizon only charges you a one time $150 fee for the device with no unlimited minutes and T-Mobile gives you unlimited minutes for $10/month. Sprint charges $4.99/month to use the device with unlimited usage pegged at $10 a month. Makes me wonder how AT&T will justify the $20 price tag…
