AT&T 3G MicroCell: Awakening Dead Spots at a Price

April 15th, 2010 by Eric Chamberlain
No signal

No signal

AT&T Wireless has admitted that its service is less than reliable in large swaths of urban areas such as New York City and San Francisco, and has promised infrastructure upgrades in those areas in order to address the problems.

When AT&T will get around to the service upgrades is anyone’s guess. Fortunately, AT&T customers who live or work within dead spots in those cities now have an effective, albeit pricey, hardware device — the $150 AT&T 3G Microcell — that alleviates a part of the problem.

I recently moved to the western side of the Oakland Bay Bridge and discovered that everything they say about AT&T’s mobile coverage in San Francisco is true.

My new apartment is in the center of the city, and the AT&T map shows coverage for my street. Don’t trust that map. Even before I unpacked the first cardboard box full of kitchen utensils I learned that my new home, with just about every modern amenity I could ever need, has absolutely no AT&T cell coverage.

My previous apartment, high above the Interstate, had a cell tower on the roof, and every cell phone I used always had five bars. I wasn’t ready to give up my near decade long landline-free existence.

Online, I found complaints from others in the neighborhood about the spotty coverage. One desperate neighbor even taped a sign to a light post asking iPhone users to use AT&T’s Mark the Spot app to mark the bad coverage in the area.

My situation was bad. My husband even dared to utter the "L" word — landline. I desperately got to work in search of another solution. Anything would do, I even researched building a repeater with high-gain antennas and amplifiers.

It was then that I heard that AT&T was beginning a nationwide rollout (AT&T 3G MicroCell Coverage Maps – 4/10) of their AT&T 3G MicroCell femtocell solution.

A femtocell is basically a mini-cell tower for your home or office, covering, AT&T claims, a 5,000 square foot area (or about 40 feet in any direction). The wireless carriers are under pressure from the FCC to actually provide coverage where their marketing materials claim to offer it. You have to buy the device and pay for the Internet access, but it’s better than no coverage while you wait for the wireless carrier and the FCC to finish fighting.

Off I went to the AT&T website all ready to sign-up and buy the Cisco-manufactured AT&T 3G MicroCell, only to find out that the San Francisco roll-out wouldn’t occur until mid-April, doh.

AT&T 3G MicroCell

AT&T met it’s deadline. It’s now mid-April and when I learned that the MicroCell was available, I went to the closest AT&T store. The store manager said that every AT&T store in a 300 mile radius sold out on the first day. Luckily, I happened to show up on the day the second shipment arrived.

The AT&T store clerk offered to do an in-store activation of the AT&T 3G MicroCell. I declined so I could fully document the process. But if you want to save some time, when you go to the AT&T store, take your AT&T Wireless online password and let the store clerk activate the MicroCell for you. Then, when you take the MicroCell home and plug it in, you are good to go.

If you live in an AT&T mobile service area, have some kind of broadband internet access at home (a minimum of 1.5 Mbps downstream and 768 Kbps upstream), the AT&T 3G MicroCell packaging includes everything you need (the unit itself, power supply, an ethernet cable, "Getting Started Guide" and "User Manual").

If you like to tinker and choose to do the online activation yourself, the process is outlined clearly in the "Getting Started Guide". The typical user will not even need to open the "User Manual."

The Terms & Conditions and End User License Agreement are pretty standard: they won’t share personally identifiable information, the terms are governed by the State of California, location based services may not work correctly, you need to keep your E911 information up to date, etc. After agreeing to the Terms & Conditions and End User License Agreement, the online activation is a five step process:

  1. Device registration — link your MicroCell’s serial number to your AT&T Wireless account;
  2. Address verification — create a device nickname, the editable E911 & device location form is pre-populated with your email address and billing address;
  3. Approved user list — the form is pre-populated with the AT&T Wireless phones associated with your account, you can add up to 10 numbers;
  4. Review — review your account settings;
  5. Confirmation — you can print a copy of your settings

After completing the online activation, the "Getting Started Guide" explains how to connect your AT&T 3G MicroCell to the network.

  1. If your cable/DSL modem is connected directly to the computer, you use the MicroCell’s built in switch to connect to the modem and the computer.
  2. If you have a gateway or WiFi router, connect the MicroCell ethernet port to an open switch port.
  3. If you want to prioritize the MicroCell traffic, the "User Manual" lists another option. Use the built in switch and connect the MicroCell between the router and the cable/DSL modem.

AT&T recommends that the MicroCell be installed near a window because the built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver needs a signal for the unit to work. If you don’t want the AT&T 3G MicroCell by a window, the MicroCell features an external GPS antenna port (antenna sold separately).

My router is not near a window, but my AirPort Express connected TiVo is. Rather than dig around for a switch, I opted for the third setup option and used the MicroCell’s switch to insert the MicroCell between the TiVo and the AirPort Express. This configuration worked for testing purposes, but I did not try making a call while streaming an HD movie to the TiVo.

The documentation says that the startup process can take up to 90 minutes for the MicroCell to begin working as a cell site.

When the MicroCell boots for the first time, it connects over TLS to a server and downloads a fair amount of data. I recorded the traffic with Wireshark to see if the traffic from the MicroCell to AT&T is encrypted. Based on my experience with similar Cisco devices, the encrypted packets the MicroCell is downloading contain configuration information and a firmware update. After a few minutes, the MicroCell reboots.

When the MicroCell boots, the MicroCell tries to acquire a GPS signal and securely connect (TLS and IPSEC) with the AT&T wireless servers. Acquiring a GPS signal can take a few minutes, depending on the position of the satellites and the signal through your window.

AT&T M-Cell

AT&T M-Cell

I plugged the MicroCell in and took the dog for a walk. Within 20 minutes, I received a text message from AT&T saying that my AT&T 3G MicroCell was configured and working. When I got home, my phone immediately found the MicroCell and connected. The phone now reports AT&T M-Cell as the carrier.

I sent some test text messages and called my office number. The text messages went through right away and voice calls sound like the any other 3G call.

I ran into Mark, my neighbor who had posted the sign asking people to report the dead spots to AT&T. He was interested in the MicroCell, but balked at the cost, suggesting AT&T should give the MicroCell away when there is no service in an area they claim to cover.

Me? I’m grudgingly willing to pay $150 to keep my family connected.

And connected we are. Before connecting the AT&T 3G Microcell, we could not make or receive calls on our iPhones. We had no access to texting nor 3G email. Now, we both get a full five bars of connectivity. Inbound calls, outbound calls, SMS and 3G data are all fully enabled.

As a plus, we are also able to make VoIP calls on our iPhone.

Using the freely available web-based mobile VoIP RF.com service (disclaimer: I am a founder and actively involved in RF.com), I was able to make several overseas VoIP calls over my office Asterisk system. The RF.com web dialer loaded instantly on my iPhone, the exchange of signaling traffic between my phone and the RF media server was instantaneous, and the calls, even over 3G, were very clear.

The Microcell is a good first effort on the part of AT&T, a company not known for innovation. But there is still ample room for improvement.

A big improvement would be a public access option, or an easy way to make a MicroCell available to any user that happens to be in range. For example, a coffee shop located in a weak AT&T coverage area could install a single device allowing its customers access to their cell phones.

Also, eliminating the need for the Microcell to be located in an AT&T service area (verifiable via GPS) would be very useful for international travelers who wish to take their local cell phones with them overseas. This would be a good alternative to a WiFi VoIP solution by allowing a user to be reached on his or her cell number without incurring roaming charges. A hacker’s workaround to the limitation would be to spoof, or “meacon,” the GPS signal.

The AT&T 3G MicroCell is excellent for supplemental coverage in areas like San Francisco. But the device will really be helpful in rural areas, like Marquette, MI, where there is no 3G coverage. Hopefully, AT&T will continue their nation wide rollout.

Posted in Mobile Products, Mobile VoIP, Product Reviews, VoIP | 3 Comments »

You Should Come to eComm

April 1st, 2010 by Marcelo Rodriguez

There are not many things more annoying about working in the communications space than the constant email invitations to big conferences that offer too little for too much. With few exceptions, I don’t go to them.

eComm 2010.png

One conference I do plan to attend is Emerging Communications America 2010, or as communications insiders call Lee Dryburgh‘s little but potent get-together, eComm.

Some of the more promising sessions at the third annual eComm at the Marriot Hotel at San Francisco International Airport, April 19-21, include:

MIT’s Assaf Biderman on “What Can Cities be Like When Everything Talks,” focusing on the research work carried out at the MIT SENSEable City Lab, which aims at exploring how inter-networked devices of all types could impact future life in cities.

Telio’s Alan Duric on “Telio Launch.” Duric’s an uber-geek with a vast array of skills, which include entertaining audiences when talking about things that induce sleep when handled by others, like launching a VoIP start-up across spanning Scandinavia.

Brian Harris, an Assistant Attorney General in New Mexico on “Yesterday’s Wire for Tomorrow’s Apps?” Harris is a consumer advocate in New Mexico’s AG office, and he has extensive telecom knowledge. He’ll talk about how government, through regulation and incentives, can encourage innovation from sluggish and intransigent communications mega-corps.

Carlos Kirjner, advisor to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chair Julius Genachowski on “The National Broadband Plan and the Future of the Internet.”

Martin Geddes on “Cloud Communications (and How to Destroy a $700bn Industry for Fun and Profit).” Geddes is one of the brighter minds of the international telecom scene, and his take on how the still-hyped internet cloud will change everything is not to be missed.

There are dozens of others, so click your way through eComm’s pages and you’re sure to find much of interest, or just check out the impressive list of participants.

eComm runs about $1,600, not an easy amount these days but, compared to the other communication fests that offer much less for a lot more money, a real bargain.

Unfortunately, other than watching the planes land at SFO from the hotel bayside patio, there’s not much to do within walking distance of the conference.

Fortunately, America’s greatest city is only about 15 minutes (and a $25 cab ride) to the north.

Posted in Business, Mobile VoIP, News, Opinion, VoIP | Comments Off

The WiFi Why Not on Verizon Skype

March 29th, 2010 by Chuck Winnor

In the US, the two aging grandads of cellular have been duking it out on TV commercials like a pair of old politicians tied in the polls two weeks before a gubernatorial election. Both claim to be the best of the two at exactly the same things: both have the most extensive data coverage, both have the highest customer satisfaction, both are innovative. And, just like the two old pols, both are full of it. When it comes to coverage, customer satisfaction, and particularly innovation, both are far behind their counterparts in Europe and Asia.
Skype Mobile
Still, in the past week, Verizon has managed to squeak out a bit of a lead, particularly among US VoIP heads, because the company began offering its Android and Blackberry using customers something AT&T has been waffling on: Skype service using the 3G network.

Let it be said that offering and making something usable are two entirely different things. Skype over 3G works OK, some of the time. But let’s face it, even if Verizon’s 3G is more capable than AT&T’s iPhone-saturated network, that edge is very bare. Often times, calls on Skype over 3G is an exercise in aggravation control as voice packets get lost, callers sound like they’ve jumped into the ocean, or calls just get cut off.

Wishing for a little WiFi Skype action on your Verizon phone? Keep wishing. It’s not offered now nor, as this post on Skype’s official blog seems to hint, is it planned in the near future.

Skyper Peter Parkes’ single best explanation for the lack of WiFi support on Verizon is that 3G is friendlier to your cell phone’s battery than WiFi.”Using Verizon’s own 3G network means that you’ll be able to talk for longer, with fewer trips back to the charger,” writes Parkes.

In other words, half the Skype calls you make on your Droid may be garbled by the 3G monster, but you’ll be able to make more of them.

Thanks to Skype and Verizon for deciding for us which side of the trade-off we should all be on.

Posted in Mobile VoIP, Skype, VoIP | 2 Comments »

A ‘Hotline’ of SPAs

March 25th, 2010 by Chuck Winnor

One of the most popular help requests of owners of the SPA series Cisco/Linksys VoIP adapters is how to configure two of the devices in separate locations to create a virtual hotline.

The idea is that when a phone connected to one of the devices is lifted off it’s hook, a call is automatically made to the other SPA device, ringing the phone attached to it.

The topic comes up regularly on the Voxilla Forum, and it did so again in the last few days. Senior forum author hwittenb, as ususal, does an excellent job of outlining the different “hotline” methods available, complete with full configuration files that are easy to crib from.

Check out the growing thread at http://forum.voxilla.com/cisco-linksys-sipura-voip-support-forum/hot-line-between-two-spa3102-44531.html.

Posted in How To, VoIP, VoIP Hardware, VoIP Tips | Comments Off

WiFi VoIP Gets Closer as FCC Seeks Public Comment on Net Neutrality Rules

October 22nd, 2009 by Lonnie Lazar

The Federal Communications Commission published an initial draft of proposed new rules (pdf) on Thursday that would, if approved, effectively make net neutrality the law of the land and open the door to WiFi VoIP as never before.

The Draft Rules to Preserve the Free and Open Internet seek to codify non-binding policy guidelines in place since 2005 and incorporate rules first elucidated last month by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (pdf) lists six terms that would prevent Internet Service Providers from denying their customers the right to use any legal applications, devices or services. The rules would also ban other forms of discrimination — although allowing for neutral, “reasonable” network management — and require that providers publish any steps they take for network management, such as throttling or metered service.

The proposed rules would apply to all providers of both wired and wireless Broadband Internet connectivity as well as to applications and service providers who deliver their products and services over Broadband or otherwise do business on the Internet. If approved, the rules would then significantly impact VoIP applications, VoIP service providers, and others such as Google, that provide voice services and communications over the Internet.

In proposing the rules, the Commission’s two Republican members concurred and dissented in part on the vote to issue the Draft. While agreeing with the concept of an open Internet, they also questioned whether the FCC has the authority to draft a net neutrality policy and cautioned that other countries could use the US government’s action as a basis for imposing more restrictive access rules in their own jurisdictions.

Public comments to the proposed rules will be sought by the FCC until January 14, with replies to those comments accepted up to March 5.

After a long and very public debate on both sides of the question, Thursday’s action finally sets in motion the arduous process of turning ideas into law. Many of the largest carriers and Broadband providers are expected to staunchly oppose the proposed rules and the rhetoric will no doubt remain thick and hoary well through the spring of 2010.

With an eye toward the high emotions already raised on both sides of the neutrality debate, Chairman Genachowski cautioned all parties as to his view of the government’s responsibility, saying the Commission’s role “should be no greater than necessary to achieve the core goal of preserving a free and open Internet…the goal is to provide a fair framework in which all participants in the Internet ecosystem can operate, ultimately minimizing the need for government involvement.”

Posted in Business, Mobile VoIP, News, VoIP | Comments Off

Asterisk Makes Enterprise Inroads With Big Blue

October 15th, 2009 by Lonnie Lazar

Digium and IBM announced a new partnership at Astricon Thursday that highlights both the Asterisk company’s increasing attention from the enterprise telecommunications sector as well as Big Blue’s growing appetite for SMB market share.

The two companies announced the creation of an Asterisk-based phone system available now for the IBM Smart Cube platform. Smart Cube is a product of the company’s Smart Business initiative for small to medium-sized businesses, a pre-integrated solution (including hardware, operating system, security, backup, middleware and business applications) that SMBs can download from the IBM Smart Market.

This IBM-certified integration marks the first formal collaboration between the two companies. Asterisk for Smart Cube will give small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers using IBM’s Smart Cube platform a business phone and unified communication system that can be downloaded, configured and up-and-running within half an hour, according to Digium.

The total solution also integrates with IBM/Lotus products Domino and Sametime for multimedia collaboration and unified messaging.

“Digium’s collaboration with IBM to jointly develop an Asterisk-based phone system represents a huge advance toward our commonly held goal of giving SMBs powerful IT capabilities in a flexible, easy to implement system,” said Danny Windham, CEO of Digium. “The ability to deploy and manage sophisticated telephony applications right alongside other critical business software appeals to SMBs across industries. We’re proud that IBM partnered with Digium to meet the needs of its Smart Cube customers.”

Asterisk has grown in ten years to become the most widely used open source telephony platform in the world. With millions of worldwide downloads, it has become the backbone for flexible, cost-effective business phone systems used by companies large and small, and the company’s growth has lately gained the notice of enterprise heavyweights such as Cisco and now, IBM.

On balance these developments are a big positive for Digium and bode well for the long-term growth and stability of the Asterisk platform. As the power and flexibility of systems formerly reserved to only the largest enterprises come increasingly within reach of small and medium sized companies, increased innovation and competition across the business landscape should be good for everyone.

Posted in Business, News, VoIP, VoIP Products | Comments Off

Voxilla’s FreePBX in a Cloud, Step-By-Step

October 15th, 2009 by Eric Chamberlain

Note: This post has been updated with a new FreePBX in a Cloud instance for Europe.

Because of the interest in our series on VoIP and the open source Asterisk PBX using Amazon’s convenient Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), yesterday (2009-02-23) Voxilla released a pre-built virtual machine EC2 image using FreePBX, the popular graphical front end administration tool for Asterisk.freepbxlogo

If you are interested in a stock installation of Asterisk on the Amazon cloud (either you prefer to manage your PBX manually through command prompts and edited text files, or you wish to install a GUI front end other than FreePBX), you’ll be more interested in Voxilla’s Asterisk in a Cloud step-by-step tutorial).

In the Asterisk in a Cloud tutorial, we led you through the use of Elasticfox, a hearty plug-in for the Firefox browser that gives you easy access to the administrative functions of your Amazon EC2 account. In this tutorial, we forego Elasticfox and use Amazon’s AWS Management Console.

Amazon’s console is much easier to use than Elasticfox; any browser will do and no plug-in download/installation/configuration is required. The console  appears to have replaced Elasticfox as Amazon’s preferred AWS management front end.

A small warning: the AWS Management Console is still in beta, and though we have not found problems, future changes may deem some of the instructions below incorrect. In the event that this tutorial needs changes for future releases of the management console, we’ll make them directly on this post.

In this post,  we provide step-by-step instructions to install Voxilla’s FreePBX in  a Cloud. We will:

  • Log into your Amazon EC2 account;
  • Configure your Security Group settings;
  • Create a new SSH key pair or use your existing key pair;
  • Launch the FreePBX instance;
  • SSH to the FreePBX instance to retrieve the FreePBX and Webmin web interface URLs and passwords;
  • Connect to the FreePBX web interface.

To follow this guide, you will need an SSH client installed on your computer — Mac and Linux machines have a built-in SSH client, Windows users can use PuTTY.

  1. Launch the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Management Console.
     If you don’t have an Amazon EC2 account, you can sign-up for EC2 by following the link in the Getting Started section of the console.
  2. Click the button labeled Sign in to Amazon EC2 Console.  Then sign-in with your Amazon credentials.
  3. In the Navigation menu — left column, click Security Groups.  The Security Groups view will load.
  4. Look in the Security Groups section — main section of the page.  If you don’t have an Asterisk security group, follow the instructions below to create one:
    • Click the Create Security Group button — upper left corner of the main section.  A new Create Security Group window will appear;

      • Create Security Group

    • Type Asterisk in the Security Group Name field;
    • Type Security group for Asterisk instances in the Description field;
    • Click the Create button to create the security group and return to the Security Group page.

     

  5. Select the Asterisk security group.  The security group rules will appear at the bottom of the main frame of your browser.      
    Asterisk Security Group

    Asterisk Security Group

     Your Asterisk security group needs to allow the the following traffic:

    Connection Method Protocol From Port To Port Source (IP or group)
    Custom… ICMP -1 -1 0.0.0.0/0
    HTTP TCP 80 80 0.0.0.0/0
    HTTPS TCP 443 443 0.0.0.0/0
    Custom… UDP 10000 20000 0.0.0.0/0
    Custom… TCP 5060 5061 0.0.0.0/0
    Custom… UDP 5060 5060 0.0.0.0/0
    SSH TCP 22 22 0.0.0.0/0 or
    your public IP address/32
    Custom… TCP 10000 10000 0.0.0.0/0 or
    your public IP address/32
  6. If any or all of the above rules do not exist in your Asterisk security group, you will need to add each individually. If your group includes a service above, but contains different values, you will have to remove the service (using the button on the right of the row containing the service), and re-enter the correct values manually.To add rules to your Asterisk security group:
    • Copy the values from the table above into the bottom entry of the security group, then click Save.         

      Add rule

      Add rule

    • To add more rules, repeat step 1.
  7. Click Key Pairs from the Navigation menu in the left column.  The Key Pair page will appear in the main section of the page.  You need at least one key pair to launch your instance. If you do have a key pair, skip to step 8. If you don’t, follow the steps below to generate a new key pair:
    • Click the Create Key Pair button in the upper left corner of the main section. A Create Key Pair window will appear.
    • Type ec2-keypair in the Key Pair Name field.
    • Click Create to generate the new keypair.  The console will generate a new key pair for you and your browser should automatically download the private key and save it as ec2-keypair.pem.
    • You will need to move the private key file with your other SSH private keys. If you’re using PuTTY on Windows, follow these directions from Amazon to store your keys; if you are on a Mac or Linux, move your keys into the ~/.ssh directory. On a Mac using the Safari browser with its default download settings, get the keys in the right place by opening Terminal.app and enter the following: mv ~/Downloads/ec2-keypair.pem ~/.ssh
  8. Click Instances from the Navigation menu.  The My Instances view will appear in the main section of the web page.
  9. Click the Launch Instances button in the upper left corner of the main section.  A new Launch Instances window will appear.
  10. Select the Community AMIs tab.
  11. In the search box in the center of the window, type voxilla.  The list should automatically update and list all the available instances published by Voxilla.
  12. Press the appropriate Select button: If you are in the United States, choose the voxilla/FreePBX-Asterisk-1.6.0.5-i386.manifest.xml instance.  If you are in Europe, select the eu-voxilla/FreePBX-Asterisk-1.6.0.5-i386.manifest.xml instance. You will be taken to a page that looks like the image below.          

    Launch Instance

    Launch Instance

  13. In the Number of Instances field, type 1.
  14. Make sure the Instance Type is set to Small.
  15. Select ec2-keypair from the Key Pair Name drop-down box.
  16. Select Asterisk from the Security Groups.
  17. Click the Launch button to launch your FreePBX instance.
  18. From the My Instances view, you can watch the progress of your instance.  It may take up to five minutes for your instance to start.  
  19. Typically you don’t need to SSH into your FreePBX instance. But, for security purposes, we generate new passwords each time an instance of the Voxilla FreePBX in a Cloud AMI is created. So we must SSH into the box to retrieve the FreePBX and Webmin interface passwords for the instance you’ve just created.  Once your instance has a Status of running, select the instance and click the Connect button at the top of the main section.  A new window will appear and explain how to connect to your instance via SSH. Just copy and paste the string in the amazon Example into your SSH client, and click Return.

    AWS SSH Help Screen

    AWS SSH Help Screen

  20. The first time you connect to your instance, your connection attempt may be rejected, this usually means your instance is still starting up .  Wait a minute or two and try your connection attempt again. You may receive a warning message similar to “Warning: Identity file ec2-keypair.pem not accessible: No such file or directory.” If so, your keys cannot be found on the local machine. If so, then enter the path to the keypairs (i.e.: ssh -i ~/.ssh/ec2-keypair.pem). When prompted to accept the server SSH key, choose Yes.
  21. At this point, if your connection attempt is rejected, it means the SSH daemon is still starting, give it a minute or two and try again.
  22. Whenever you log into the instance, the first thing displayed are the urls for the FreePBX and Webmin web interfaces.  Note them for later or copy and paste the urls into a new web browser window.
  23. Each time you log into the instance, you will also see the location of the release notes and the passwords file.
  24. You should read the instance release notes by typing more release-notes on the command line (These release notes can also be found here on the Voxilla Forum).
  25. To display your system passwords, type more passwords on the command line.  These passwords were randomly generated when your instance started.  You should copy these passwords to a safe location on your computer, so you don’t have to SSH back into the machine to retrieve them.
  26. Paste the FreePBX web interface url into your web browser.  You will see a warning prompt about the SSL certificate.  Accept the certificate and continue with the connection (see the release notes for more information).  When the page loads, click FreePBX Administration.
  27. Enter admin for the Username and the password from your password file.
  28. You should now see the FreePBX Administration status page.
  29. You can close down your SSH session.

You can now configure FreePBX and Asterisk. To determine what to enter as the SIP server when configuring devices such as telephone adaptors and IP phones, click the Instances link in the AWS Management Console’s navigation area, and look up the Public DNS for the Asterisk/FreePBX instance. Use this value as your SIP server name.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Business, PBX, VoIP Service, VoIP Tips | Comments Off

« Older Entries