About 4 years ago, we were living in a different house. Cellular coverage in that house was pretty spotty. At the time I decided to give the AT&T microcell a try.
Fast forward and we are in a different house. Unfortunately cellular coverage indoors is still spotty.
Having had enough of dropped calls, I decided to walk over to the AT&T store last week. I asked the sales rep if he had a microcell in stock.
“Yes, we do. They are great. These things get about 5k feet of coverage”
“Wow, that’s awesome!”, I replied. So psyched. Of course 4 years in tech land would mean that my cell coverage woes were over. I handed over my credit card, he put the box in a nice bag and I was out the door.
At home I opened the bag and couldn’t believe it. The exterior of the box had a picture of the microcell. And it looked exactly like the one I tried in 2010.
Okay, ever the optimist, I thought, they must love this form factor but I’m sure the hardware and software are different.
I was wrong. It’s the same exact device, warts and all.
I’m (still) crushed.
These things shouldn’t need a device sitting on my network. They should just gracefully switch from cellular to internet and back with ease.