Sprint's Airave signal booster in the wild, on sale nationwide this month?

Considering that the last time Sprint's Airave was even relevant was when a smattering of folks bought one in Denver and Indianapolis, like, last September, here's a quick refresher on what this thing does. Similar to T-Mobile @home, this box plugs into one's broadband connection and essentially acts as a mini cell tower within your house, which will certainly make folks in a fringe zone with no option for Roam Only (feel our pain, Instinct owners?) quite happy. For whatever reason, the carrier has dilly-dallied around with this thing forever, and even if whispers prove true and it launches on July 15th for $99 (on top of a monthly fee for unlimited minutes, we hear), we have to wonder if anyone will even bite. Two more shots in the read link.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 1st 2008 6:28PM]

Sprint seems to always want to be ahead of the line when it comes to creating stronger signals. It was the first company to install fiber optic routes along its routes.
http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Sprint-Corporation-Company-History.html

[strommsarnac Posted Jul 3rd 2008 10:26AM]

Bec wrote "Sprint seems to always want to be ahead of the line when it comes to creating stronger signals. It was the first company to install fiber optic routes along its routes."

Installing fiber has nothing to do with "creating stronger signals". Cell phones are wireless, fire is not, therefore no connection.

The only ways to create a stronger signal is to up the power to the antenna or redirect the antenna.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 14th 2008 7:41PM]

WANT!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 22nd 2008 10:04PM]

I just found out about AirAve yesterday when speaking with a Sprint retention agent about leaving because of shoddy signal in my new townhome. Said it will be out on July 25th and cost an extra $10 for unlimited calling. There is also a price attached for equipment which was either $99 or $149 (can't remember exactly), but they would wave that if I decided not to leave Sprint. If they make me pay an extra $10 a month, then I'm gone! Might as well pay the break fee and leave for Verizon!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 24th 2008 3:41PM]

I've been on Airave in Denver since last year. Once we finally got it working, it was great to finally get a good signal in the house and I briefly considered removing our main line (which was already Comcast VoIP) to compensate for the $15 monthly charge on my line (my wife would have to pay another $15 if she wants the free minutes.

If you're going to do this, however, be forewarned:

- Next to nobody in Sprint customer service, tech support, and billing knows about this thing so be prepared to spend lots of time being transferred from call center to call center when you have a problem.

- When you get a new handset or change your plan in any way, expect your billing to go FUBAR for months at a time while you're bounced around from one clueless Sprint representative to the next.

- Data still goes to your local tower, so Airave won't solve your data coverage or throughput problems. And if like me you get a decent signal in some parts of your house, the one-way handoff when you leave your home coverage area will work, but not reliably (and it doesn't work the other way so calls will drop when you come home if you step into an area that doesn't have good tower coverage. Also, you have to be careful inside the house to listen for the beep when you place or pick up a call - if you don't hear it it means you're using your regular minutes anyway

At the end of the day, I'm becoming more and more convinced that the Airave is more trouble than it's worth and my opinion of Sprint has gone from "just as bad as any other carrier" to "perfect case study in customer dissatisfaction and cluelessness"