Cell Service

[tlg4942]

 pz's post on the Western Digital Cloud device reminded me of this. Maybe it will help someone here out if you have internet but bad cell signal. Plus if your paying 45 a month for a telephone line you could drop it and pay this off pretty quick.
 ATT has a product we are looking into at work. The Cisco "micro cell" where if you have internet but not cell service you can plug this into the net , set an antenna so it can GPS locate the device and you then have cell service... I have seen two of them working now and very well I might add,
 Its a little pricey at $300. but I have been told it doesn't use up your data and possibly doesn't use your minutes when your connected through it. 
 I think we may be installing one at a really tough location soon so I'll report back on its success.
Verizon has one as well built by Samsung. The call it a cell extender or something like that...

[DWard51]

We have Sprint service at my job.  I live in a poor service area for Sprint and the company decided they would buy me a Micro Cell.  They shipped me a Cisco device programmed for the Sprint network.  Only problem is the Sprint unit connects to "MY" internet and it sets up a micro cell that any Sprint device in range uses.  And it does count on my AT&T Uverse 25mb account bandwidth.

Needless to say I yanked the cord on that puppy once I figured out it was eating my bandwidth and expanding Sprint's infrastructure on my dime and not theirs. And yes, the company did have to pay Sprint for the privilege of me "donating" my bandwidth. 

[smoker pete]

I have the Verizon version and it works FANTASTIC!!  We don't live in the boonies but for some reason we're in a small dead zone ...  Got one of these units and it my phone bars are maxed out !!! 
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[spuds]

Im in a dead zone too,a block away its great.

Got lucky,lost my phone and new one can, get 1 bar at house,just enough to make a call in an emergency.

[tlg4942]

There are some other units that amplify a weak cell signal. You program the phones you want to use to it. Only those can work on it.
 I was told you can lock down the micro cell, the first one I saw was locked in fact? They had to program the alarm system cell number into it. Must be like a router...

[DWard51]

Our tech group said there was a way to define the MAC address of the devices for the micro cell, but they had not done this before.

We are supposed to be moving to AT&T for the work cell and my personal cell is already on AT&T.  My office is in Atlanta and Sprint has good coverage over the metro area.  However, my work sends me all over the state of GA and outside the main metro areas and more than 1/2 mile away from an interstate, Sprint seems to be non-existent.   So with the pending move, I figured I would just wait and see on the Sprint micro cell

PS - Our family phones are AT&T and the coverage is much better in the sticks than with Sprint in GA.