As many of you undoubtly noticed, a few weeks ago, AT&T launched the official consumer trial of Femtocell (dubbed MicroCell) in certain regions.

Cisco involvement in this project has long been an open secret in the industry, but now that the AT&T device with the Cisco logo is in the stores, the “secret” is out.  Yes, Cisco has an end-to-end Femtocell solution which includes the Femtocell, Femtocell gateway, all of the networking equipment and end-to-end network provisioning and management with all of the intricate integration. All in one integrated solution.  You can tell I waited a long time to say this publicly.

The initial reviews have been excellent!  A few samples below:

Engadget wrote: “AT&T's 3G MicroCell works exactly as advertised”,  “we dig that AT&T will let users buy the box and then keep using it sans any monthly fees” and “our web surfing and emailing was buttery smooth over 3G, and calls were as clear as ever”.

What Engadget noticed is that Cisco Femtocell works even with some of the weakest broadband connections:  “Just so you know, we tested our calls on a basic, no frills cable internet connection that sees uploads capped at around 40Kbps. Oh, and we did test two simultaneous calls (up to four at once are supported), and both of 'em went over great.”

From Jason Nash: “The installation is very easy” and “it appears to work pretty well.”

Charles Jade wrote: “At home, I was pleasantly surprised at how simple setup was“, “...after several days of testing, I have yet to drop a call.”

Provisioning of femtocells is pretty challenging because of the location verifications, self-optimizing aspects of the femtocell, the variety of region specific radio parameters that need to be configured and the myriad of back end systems that need to be kept in sync to that e911, handover, billing and other aspects work.  So, it is great that people are finding the activation process to be smooth.

The ensuing discussions via comments in above blogs are also interesting.  It is pretty amazing how quickly people get to the bottom of intricate aspects such as hand-in vs. hand-out, aspects of location verification, performance testing over weak links, access control lists, multi-user testing, etc.

Of course, having been involved closely with this effort, I am thrilled by the attention this has gotten and all the positive feedback.  I also pay close attention to any gripes expressed in the blogosphere for anything we can learn from them.  I will offer my thoughts on one of them in my next blog: “why should I pay for femtocell?”