AT&T knows they have a coverage problem, know they can solve it; yet still are going to the solution kicking and screaming. If you remember, you could get a micro cell tower for $199 (used to be $150 ($20 a month more for unlimited) that uses YOUR internet connection to solve a AT&T issue.  Via Engadget: Quietly; they have been offering free towers (no word on still paying for unlimited) for select customers.  Well now they are offering free towers to a select group of 7.5% of users with in building reception issues AND you still need to have or extent your contract by a year!  Sigh. This is not going to help the rush to Verizon (for those that really want an iphone) and I guess AT&T figures there is no way to really fight this.  There only hope is to try to keep high value customers who are on the edge of service from jumping; but to put this offer 2 weeks before the Verizon release does not make much sense because those who have been experiencing dropped calls have probably made up there minds to leave; and to do something like this  to select customers; will not make people think twice about not leaving.

Its a shame really; phone users like me in San Francisco, or New York or other places where there is suppose to be good coverage and 3G would feel the pain a bit less if we could make sure one or key place (like at work or home) was reliable for coverage, I think we could have lived with dropped calls going from place to place.  But that does seem to be happening anytime soon.

Update: I got a tweet for a friend saying they have this and they are STILL dropping calls.  I’ll write that over the weekend.