AT&T Inc. wireless subscribers who have poor reception at home will soon be able fix that, for $150.
The carrier said Wednesday that it is rolling out "femtocells," little boxes that work much like Wi-Fi routers, except that they send out a cellular signal. When connected to the home's broadband modem, they pick up signals from the cell phones in the home and relay them through the Internet connection.
AT&T is introducing the 3G MicroCell in mid-April in some markets, as yet unnamed. The rest of the country will follow over the next several months.
Sprint Nextel started selling femtocells for calls in 2008, and Verizon Wireless followed in early 2009. AT&T's femtocell, developed with Cisco Systems, is more advanced because it relays both calls and broadband data.
