CTIA: AT&T Microcell going national

After a year of trials, AT&T (NYSE:T) is taking the Microcell commercial, starting a rolling deployment across the US in mid-April for several months until the femtocell is available to customers nationwide.

The Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO)-built femtocell is the first 3G femtocell available in the U.S., allowing AT&T to offload mobile data traffic from its increasingly congested high-speed packet access (HSPA) network, as well as augment its voice and data network coverage.

AT&T currently sells the Microcell in five states as well as in San Diego and Las Vegas, allowing customers to use it free of charge to boost coverage in their homes. It also sells a $20 monthly plan, giving customers unlimited domestic calls when placed over the femtocell. As the femtocell is bought and installed by the customer and connects to AT&T’s core network via the Internet, the platform could be used to add considerable capacity to the network without having to build new radio access and backhaul infrastructure. At least initially, though, AT&T appears to be using the Microcell as a coverage solution rather than an offload solution.

AT&T radio access domain director Gordon Mansfield said that while data is an important component of the femtocell, AT&T isn’t necessarily looking to offload traffic as much as its trying to enhance its customers mobile data experience. The indoor signal produces a much more powerful and consistent data connection, increasing browsing and download speeds, he said. As a result AT&T has seen a sizable shift in mobile data traffic from the macro to femto network among its Microcell customers.

AT&T, however, isn’t yet passing the benefits along to its customers. Its data policies remain in place even when customers are on the femto network so data caps on mobile broadband access plans stay in place and smartphone applications that AT&T allows only over WiFi—such as iPhone video apps—are still restricted on the femtocell.