AT&T 3G Microcell Data Use Counts Toward Your Wireless Allowance

AT&T's 3G Microcell is prompting controversy, after it emerged that the carrier will be counting data use through the femtocell towards users' monthly wireless data allowance, despite being routed via your own broadband connection.  Therefore, if you use significant amounts of data when your phone is connected through the femtocell, you could find yourself falling foul of AT&T's recent data caps without even using their regular wireless network.

AT&T, for their part, claim that there is a cost incurred for them to handle the data once it goes beyond a user's home broadband connection, though that seems a little disingenuous since it's then on their fiber backbone rather than being herded through the crowded wireless spectrum.  Of course, if you're near your AT&T 3G Microcell then you're probably also within range of a WiFi hotspot, so could always hop on that instead, but with the femtocell priced at $150 and being seen, in part, as a way for AT&T to use your own connection rather than bulk out their network, we can imagine there'll be plenty of people frustrated by this.

[via BGR]