What feels as though it was a lifetime ago, AT&T started testing it's 3G Microcell in very limited fashion a little over a year ago. The 3G Microcell test market was extended shortly thereafter and AT&T is now extending the Microcell's availability again.

In response to one of our reader's inquiries into the Microcell, AT&T replied informing them that the Microcell availability has been extended to the following States and Metropolitan areas; Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, San Diego, and Las Vegas.

If you are lucky enough to live in these areas, all you need to do is visit AT&T's 3G Microcell website and enter your specific zip code to see if the Microcell is available. If you are in one of these trial areas, you will be provided with a list of retail locations where you can purchase the Microcell. There was no mention on the pricing for the Microcell itself but it appears, in reading the fine print, the service will run $19.99 per month.  There are still rumors that bundled discounts will be available to lower the monthly cost.

The 3G Microcell uses your existing broadband internet service to connect to the AT&T Network. The result is you get five bars of reception when you otherwise would have to suffer with one (or fewer) bars. The Microcell will provide up to 5,000 square feet of coverage.

There is no indication from AT&T when (or if) the Microcell will be available nationwide but for those in poor signal areas, it can't get here any quicker. Thanks goes out to jaffec for the tip.

For being the very first Snapdragon 1Ghz Windows phone in the U.S., the LG eXpo is sure hard to find these days.

Never listed on their consumer site, AT&T only lists it "Out of stock" in their business channel. Outstanding orders are being put on backorder-status and even 3rd party retailers like Amazon.com (who sell it for a fair $99 with contract) are reportedly having supply issues. (Side note: Canada's Telus seems to have them on hand still).

So what exactly is going on here? One would like to believe that the phone is selling so well AT&T simply cannot keep them in stock. But for those who frequent the various smartphone forums may notice that the eXpo crowd is quite tiny compared to other devices. So, yeah, probably not.

The issue appears to be on LG's end or whomever is actually handling the manufacturing. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly) no one is stating specifics, though we imagine there could be quite a few possibilities:

• Chinese New Year: this time of the year, it is not uncommon for manufacturing plants to shut down, halting production.
• Supply issues with Authen Tec's AES1711 fingerprint reader/sensor technology
• Supply issues with Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPU

The Chinese New Year issue is common with electronic OEMs and not a surprise. In turn, many companies prepare for the temporary downward production by increasing production before the holiday. So not likely.

Supply issues with the Authen Tec's AES1711 sensor is a possible, being so new to market. Likewise, HTC could be gobbling up all the Snapdragon's they can for their hugely popular HTC HD2 (probably being massed produced now for T-Mobile U.S.).

AT&T told WMExperts this in response to the eXpo's shortage:

While AT&T and LG continue to work together to ensure a quality product is available to customers, we are currently facing limited quantity of stock on hand. AT&T is working to complete backfill orders and the remaining stock will soon become available for new customer orders for a limited time.

Why a "limited time" only? And why not for regular, non-business consumers? (Business & Premier users can order it here).

We're not sure but hope this situation doesn't last as the eXpo is quite the Windows phone and has, at least for the time being, supplanted my Touch Pro 2 as my favorite device (Hint: 1Ghz matters...a  lot). Stay tuned.

Although the LG eXpo is a very capable device (see full review), in fact it's one of my favorites right now, it does have some ... quirks.

One of those, and we're not joking, is no email notifications. That is, there is no listing under Settings --> Sounds & Notifications for email or even SMS, for that matter.

We're not sure why that is the case, or how that passed AT&T's testing, but it is what it is and needless to say...it's annoying. (We even had a question on during the last podcast),

To address this, I threw together the registry entries to bring back SMS and Email notifications as I know this bothers quite a few folks out there, myself included. This will enable sound, vibrate, pop-up and even LED support on the eXpo for SMS and Email.

Simply use Microsoft Tag to scan and download the .cab to your device, run it, soft reset and you're good to go. Or you can just click and download directly here. Enjoy!

AT&T has posted its 2009 Q4 numbers and is experiencing a healthy boost in wireless subscribers. For the quarter, AT&T's wireless subscribers grew 2.7 million bringing the total subscribers in service to 85.1 million.

Wireless data services generated $3.9 billion in revenue, a 26.3% increase from last year's fourth quarter. However, consolidated revenues totaled $30.9 billion which is slightly down from last years Q4 earnings ($31.1 billion) but up from the 2009 Q3 earnings. This is the third consecutive quarter with a increase in consolidated revenues for AT&T.

You can find the full release over at AT&T's website along with spreadsheets and very large numbers detailing AT&T's good news.

Hot on the heals of Verizon's recent rate changes, AT&T has announced matching rate changes. Effective Jan. 18, smartphone users can enjoy a new $99.99 unlimited voice and data plan. The new plan doesn't include texting, which will still cost an additional $20 a month for unlimited SMS.

A Family Unlimited Talk plan will also be available for $179.99 (for the first two phones) per month with unlimited voice and data. The cost of additional phones was not mentioned and we can only assume it will stay at $9.99 per line. Adding unlimited texting will run you $30 per month on the Family plan.

AT&T will also offer unlimited talk plans for Feature Phones ($69.99 individual/$119.99 family) and Quick Messaging Devices ($89.99 individual/$149.99 family). As with smartphones, texting plans will run $20 for unlimited individual plans and $30 for unlimited family plans.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery. Somehow, I don't see Luke Wilson spinning it that way in the commercials that are sure to follow this announcement.

Via The iPhone Blog

Those of you looking to upgrade to the latest and greatest HTC from AT&T on the cheap should get your pocketbooks ready. Refurbished models of the HTC Pure and HTC Tilt 2 are now offered through AT&T online. Prices with a 2 year contract (including a $30 per month data plan) are down to $149.99 for the Tilt2 and $99 for the Pure.

What is your opinion on refurbished devices? Is a savings of $50 worth not getting a brand new device? Any success/horror stories to share? What say you?

Brace yourself. The "who's the fastest 3g" battle may be getting new life. AT&T announced the completion of their deployment of High-Speed-Packet Access (HSPA) 7.2 across 3G sites nationwide. It should make the "nations fastest 3G network" even faster.

In addition to the HSPA upgrade, AT&T has started to enhance the network with cell site backhaul connections. Initial deployment of backhaul connections has already started in six U.S. markets (Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and Miami) with the installation scheduled to expand to other cities later this year and into 2011.

"We are focused on providing our customers with the industry's best combination of mobile broadband speed, performance, coverage and available devices," said John Stankey, president and CEO, AT&T Operations. "As we light up new backhaul connections across the country, we're able to deliver a meaningful 3G speed boost for millions of customers who are already using HSPA 7.2-compatible devices. At the same time, we're also looking to the future with these backhaul enhancements, which will support our move to next-generation LTE technology starting in 2011."

The progress AT&T is making in improving their network speeds is good news for customers and will likely give Luke Wilson more ammunition to toss at the competition.

Read: prnewswire.com

Update:  It looks like our friends over at Android Central are reporting the T-Mobile has also completed similar upgrades to their 3G network.

Although the title makes it sound like the LG eXpo's ROM (see review) is now single and ready to mingle with the ladies, in pseudo-technical parlance it means its OS and LG custom goodies have been extracted. 

What usually happens next is similar to vultures: ROM chefs swoop in and tear apart the remains, pulling out all of LG's unique software (Music player, LGIdles UI, Mutli-task application, etc.) and then cooking into their own ROMs or re-distributing the software as standalone .cab files.

Fine line between piracy and having fun. Or is it?

Regardless of the moral and legal quandaries, you can head here to XDA and give a big thanks to Chainfire and manelscout4life who did the big deed.  Actually, having Chainfire on board is great news because now he can adapt his brilliant Direct 3D driver file to this phone, which I and others have verified doesn't play nice with the LG Idle UI.  Adding Chainfire's Direct 3D patch has a quite prominent increase in performance on the already robust Snapdragon CPU, as seen with the HD2.

Finally, custom ROMs still require the additional component of a Hard SPL, of which none is currently in sight for this little gem. We'll keep following though.

[Thanks Joao S. for the tip!]

So you're sitting back, enjoying your the new Windows phone you received over the holidays. Downloading apps, emails, and sending text messages to your hearts content on that "unlimited" data plan? Did you know that there may be a restriction on your "unlimited" plan? Restrictions, if violated, could result in your service being terminated?

We checked the fine print with the four major carriers in the U.S. market and found some interesting language as it relates to unlimited packages. Language that many may not be aware of and we felt it important to pass it on. A public service announcement of sorts. Ease on past the break to see what limits are in place.

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LG turned heads with the announcement of its latest Windows phone, the eXpo. The slide-out keyboard phone is the first Windows phone designed with an optional pico projector.

Our first impression of the eXpo are good. The phone feels well-built, comfortable in the hand and has some interesting features, such as an optical scanner that pulls double duty as a directional pad and fingerprint scanner.

We shared our initial impressions on the Expo and now we share our thoughts after taking the phone out for a test drive. Ease on past the break to see how long our initial impressions of the Expo lasted after a few days of use.

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