[aklug] Re: AT&T femtocell service

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 7:31 PM, James Tweet <jamestweet@yahoo.com>
wrote:
> Why on Earth would anyone get this?

I'd be interested, if the terms were decent.=A0 Cell reception is really ba=
d bad in and around my house.=A0 I suspect I'm right on the fringe of sever=
al towers' service areas. I had to cancel Clearwire for the same reason; t=
he modem would search and search, but never quite find a signal to grab ont=
o.=A0 If communications between my phone and the mini-tower were relatively=
 secure, I could cancel the landline phone and save a few bucks*.

However, AT&T dances around the security question.=A0 They say the device i=
s secure, but as far as I can tell, they only mean that you can restrict wh=
ich phones can use the device.=A0 They're saying that your Microcell tower =
won't give the neighbors better cell reception, and the neighbors can't bog=
 down your Internet connection by streaming data to their phones.=A0 AT&T n=
ever specifically says that your calls are any more secure, any less suscep=
tible to eavesdropping, than your current setup is.=A0 Unless and until the=
y can assure me that that's the case, I'm not interested.

(* I should note that there's probably some value in having a landline for =
emergency purposes, even if you have a strong signal on a GPS-enabled phone=
. A corded phone still functions when the power goes out; most broadband c=
onnections, and thus Microcell, wouldn't.)

--
Aaron A.
akbeancounter@yahoo.com
=0A=0A=0A      
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.