Sprint had the jump on this by a few months with its
AIRAVE, but Verizon's not far behind in bringing
femotcells to the masses with its less-elegantly-named Wireless Network Extender later this month on the 25th. The little black box will puke out a cloud of CDMA covering up to 5,000 square feet of domicile with support for up to three simultaneous calls -- enough for you, the hubby / missus, and little Joey / Susie to all be yapping away at the same time. Like Sprint's solution, the Wireless Network Extender uses GPS to verify that you're not creating little tiny Verizon networks in Laos, Kenya, or Uruguay and plugs into the internet source of your choice via Ethernet. It'll be available in Verizon stores and online starting January 25 for $249.99 -- not a bad deal for Verizon, considering you're saving them the expense of erecting a tower.
posted Jan 18th 2009 11:36PM
How come they're not paying US to extend their network? :hmph:
do they shoot bullets from their nipples?
here you go http://www.starpulse.com/news/media/robots-fembot.jpg
@Knee to the Groin
I prefer Sex Machine (From Dusk Till Dawn), who shoot bullets from his reproductive area.
Seriously. They're charging me $250 so that I can fix their shitty coverage? They should be giving this device to me with a written apology for why I'm paying $40 a month for a service they cant provide!
I got a better idea. Why dont I take $200 of that $250 and pay the ETF on your bullshit contract, and take the remaining $50 to get a decent phone with 2 yr contract on someone whos actually willing to give me the service I pay for?
novel idea isnt it?
Verizon is foolish, foolish, foolish. This is the same Samsung model rebranded that I got from Sprint. While Sprint sells their model for $99 (they gave me mine free) Verizon feels they can charge $249...ouch! Sprint charges $5 a month to use it, but then again they don't actually charge me that either. Can't wait to see the additional Verizon details on usage charges, etc. Is it just me or do these wireless carries all think they can just get away with stealing money right out of our pockets. Next they'll be in Washington asking for a bailout. Frankly, I'm surprised that one company with a ton of financial backing can't step into the ring and knock out the wireless carriers, cable and satelite providers, wireline and VoIP providers, web based fax services, and ISPs that together take a pretty penny out of our pockets each month for all of our IT needs. Solid services and much lower pricing models (without contracts) would certainly attract just about everybody away from all the crap companies that currently provide (or in the case of femtocells, that we provide) our services. Can you hear me now...GOOD!
Wait, this is Verizon, right? Won't the hardware GPS be disabled?
Yes yes, VZNavigator will then be REQUIRED at $9.99/mo
@dave:
What are you talking about? i have never had problems with my verizon coverage and i have been on alot of trips. I mostly see AT&T/SPRINT and T-MOBILES coverage shit out first over my verizon. I would love to get this free, but i would first love for them to revision their mobile highspeed and give us unlimited.
Either stop airing those ridiculous 'can you hear me now' ads, or give the extender away to those subscribers who can prove they have dead zones. Why should I pay extra to get what I'm already paying for.
wow...i was thinking the 5000 sq was huge, but then i did a lil math. and as long as i didn't make an error somewhere, this would basically be a circle w/ a radius of 39.8 ft. Not nearly as big as i thought :( I dont even have verizon, but the idea of publically available femtocells is sweet to me. If carriers could kick up the power of the transmitters so these had a broadcasting radius of 100 ft, shoot...i'd buy one and have any of my neighbors that have AT&T kick me down some cash so they can leech off my signal.
I'm sure if you have no coverage from any carrier in an area this would be awesome. Honestly, it should be free with a 2 year contract since basically now you're ONLY going to use Verizon.
No idea how to delete comments, sorry for double posting..... total fail.
Honestly this would be great if you have no coverage from any carrier. Honestly, it should be free with a contract since they're basically locking you up until someone expands to that area.
If they have the largest and most reliable network, then why would they have any need for femtocells?
hahaha
true that!
Uh... because then Verizon's users can make unlimited calls over their IP connection at home... It saves Verizon money on their cell tower connections as well.
now are they going to be charging a monthly fee like sprint? that would be totally stupid.
is this thing have any health risks??
Yes, it poses threat to you psychological well being by overloading your nervous with questions and doubts about it's health risks.
why is this better than the wifi phones that seamlessly switch over to voip when there's a wifi connection? those phones don't use minutes when on wifi.
It's not better... or worse. It's pretty much the same thing, but I'm guessing it's a CDMA repeater instead of a Wi-Fi access point, so anyone can use it - including those who don't have a phone with Wi-Fi built in.
why would verizon care if you are in Laos? you'ld still be paying them a monthly fee anyway right?
Yes, but you wouldn't be paying the exorbitant roaming fees associated with actually calling from Laos. The point is, you can't use this as your own little Skype box for your cell phone, and call from anywhere in the world.
You are also using licensed spectrum. 850 and 1900 Mhz, it is probably used for something else in laos, so it is effectively a legal thing. Though I doubt they would allow it even if it was possible.
The GPS is there so it doesn't get used in United States markets where Verizon is not licenced to be. That would cause legal problems.
Ugh, should have gone with WiFi then. And 850/1900 isn't licensed in Laos. (I'm pretty sure that 1900 was for pre-2.4GHz cordless phone in most of Asia, thus unlicensed) What legal thing?
my friend has one from Sprint. works great indoors! though they dont cover that much outside. dont expect to sit out in the pool and still have coverage. so im gonna have to say verizon is prolly protecting their interests.
@ dorf
It's more likely that the GPS is being used for next gen 911 purposes so that when a caller calls 911 they can get a better GPS fix without having to have the chip(s) in the phone(s).
From what I understand, the GPS is used to sync the signal with the network. CDMA signals are very intricately timed, so as you switch from tower to tower, you have no issue.
Since you're now essentially erecting a mini-tower for home or office use, you need to have your femtocell's signal timed with the network, and that is only achieved through a GPS lock.
Do they give the user any sort of discount for using their phone off of the "network extender" in any way, sorta like T-Mobile does with HotSpot@Home? If not, why should someone have to spend such a big sum as $250 for this to correct what could easily be poor network coverage by Verizon? I think $50 would be a more appropriate amount to ask for something like that.
Still think it would be better just to add it as an extra 3 dollars a month or so to your current plan.
"The little black box will puke out a cloud of CDMA covering up to 5,000 square feet..."
I love the wording. Seriously.
Ball is in your ball park now AT&T! Last like always.
Wrong...
1: AT&T and Sprint both had the Centro WAY before Verizon
2: AT&T and Sprint had the Touch Pro before Verizon
Anything else you'd like to claim AT&T is behind on?
Ad-hoc femtocells are a lot tougher to do with AT&T's GSM (TDMA) system than with CDMA. AT&T could do 3G (CDMA GSM) cells pretty easily though.
@ why not the LS2LS7?
What do you mean it would be harder for AT&T because they are GSM? What do you call T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home service? That's been around for quite a while, so I would say all of the CDMA carriers (Verizon, Sprint, etc) are the ones that are behind, if anyone.
@Bob
TMobile's @ Home has nothing to do with a GSM cell. It's UMA on WiFi.
Bob:
GSM (TDMA) requires you plan out frequency use based upon physical location. So, to insert a new cell (even a femtocell) you have to re-layout nearby cells. And even if you get it right, if someone then moves the femtocell it can mess it all up.
CDMA has no such problem.
This is why portable ad-hoc femtocells like this are available on CDMA already and much more difficult to set up on TDMA.
Last because they have a lesser need to expand coverage. At least in my area they have all services beat.
Maybe in your area (big city perhaps) but in my area (01915) AT&T absolutely sucks. More bars my butt.
Take a look here, and see all the blue-skulls (AT&T dead spots): http://www.signalmap.com/us?lat=42.5761704&zoom=11&lng=-70.8714528&carrier=
Why give your bandwidth to verizon to make up for their spotty coverage when you can just get a repeater for the same price?
Something like this - http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/9823/
?
Going to get the OBVIOUS out of the way here...
And I quote: "Important Note:
You will need to have some signal (at least one bar), for the Cellphone Signal Extender to work. You can't extend what's not there... right?"
The AIRAVE/Wireless Network Extender works where there is NO cellular coverage at all. And like an above commenter noted, Sprint also gave me one to escape me cancelling my service. Free/No Monthly. It's a band-aid, really. The AIRAVE does give me service at my home that I did not previously have, however I find the lag it introduces into the calls to be a major distraction. Slightly worse than lag imposed by a traditional Vonage/VoIP call.
That's ridiculous. If you have no service in your home it's time to change providers.
Up to three calls at the same time..... So what prevents your neighbor from jumping on your signal???
Do you need to authenticate with your phone?
There is nothing to prevent your neighbor from using.
I dont really think the three call limit will be much a big deal, but I could be wrong. It would also be worse if you lived in an urban area or an apartment, but my personal experience is that those already have decent coverage, so you wouldnt really need it.
well the Sprint model lets you restrict it to 3 numbers if you like.
I hate the price on this. Like, Ive been waiting for VZW to finally get their heads out of their asses and release one, but I dont really have $250 to drop on it.
We use only cell phones (no landline!) and its quite annoying since I get crappy coverage when Im in the basement (which is where my office is) If I could get one of these, and get perfect coverage all through the house, that would be amazing. But Im not dropping $250 on it. I pray to god it will fall in price soon.
This is not as the same as the wi-fi phone. The femto cell limits how many phones can used it by filtering on the phone numbers. But any visitors entering your home, without their number entered into femto cell, can not make call at all, even can not use the outdoor tower, unless the Verizon allows open access. Open access means that your buy the equipment and every one pass by or near it can use it making calls. You pay to boost the coverage of Verizon. Good money making strategy.
But does it also do EVDO rev a. ?
No, it's 1x only. So just Voice and text. Presumably you would be in reach of your own wifi network, that is if your verizon phone supports wifi:).
Why would it be 1x only? I'm pretty sure the sprint one works EVDO
As far as I know the Sprint one doesn't do EVDO Rev A but it is software upgradable at a later time. I haven't seen where that 'later time' has happened yet.
Verizon still needs to put out FiOS routers that don't suck... I hate having to bridge another router to it to get decent wifi reception throughout my house
Wow, $250? Its only $99 with Sprint but if you bitch and complain enough, you get it for free.
yep and most bitch to get it for free :D
Any word on a monthly fee? I sure hope not.
With Verizon, most likely.
Wrong in so many ways, Verizon. If I have to place it near a window so that the GPS kicks in, I can't use it in my basement office (or my work office) where I get spotty reception. One of the problems with cell phone reception is that it is seriously degraded by concrete walls - the same kind of things that tend to block out GPS signals.
If you read the specs you would see it come with a cable for the gps antenna to get coverage, I really don't care cause i'm on att, just letting you know
In other countries it would be illegal to operate the unit because they use different frequencies than in the US. The GPS is also to make sure you're not using it in a place that Verizon Wireless isn't licensed in the USA. This is a real mini cell site, meaning it works with all the existing Verizon phones, not just phones that support WiFi.
Surely this could be hacked to use in other countries? An interesting prospect perhaps? Especially for travelers.
I was thinking the same thing.
@ Dakota
Yes... there are a few things that ATT is desperately missing
Quality product
Customer satisfaction
if you think att is missing a quality product...you're nothing more than a biased idiot. Take a look at the top 10 most highly reviewed/ranked devices available on the mobile market, now...how many of those are on ATT. god ur horrible
Well, I can't wait for THIS to be hacked! If only this were for GSM phones...
You would think that Verizon would give you this for free. Cell phone companies just love to charge you for everything. Its unbelievable. AT&T wants $9.99 a month to use their GPS navigating.
The major flaw to this device (and the Sprint Airave) is that it requires GPS for it to work. So if your like me and the other tens of thousands of people who can't get decent cell reception in their office then its also highly unlikely you are going to get the GPS signal needed to make this device work. I tried for days to get my Sprint Airave to work, but I am no where near a window so trying to locate the movable GPS antenna is useless since I am 100's of feet from a window. I can't believe they couldn't come up with another option (like using assisted GPS or IP) to verify your location.
Hundreds of feet away from a window? Good, it works for 5,000 square feet. You're set.
@Dan: You have no idea how math works do you? 5000 square feet is a 70x70 foot area.
@ Greenlight
Actually, wouldn't it be a 50 x 100 foot area?
Wait, Verizon just pulled out their WiNeE!?!? I call public indecency on that, for more reasons than one.
Does AT&T make anything like this? Sure happy I ditched Verizon over their lack of coverage at my home, lol.
Fuck Verizon, who do they think they're trying to fool?
We have the Airave. Yes, I knew the home I purchased had no Sprint coverage, but was informed in late 2007 that our company (beacuse of our National Account relationship) was one of several companies asked to participate in the pilot test, and understood that if the testing was successful, I would be eligible for the Airvae device. Unfortunately, my city was not part of the pilot. When the service went "live" in August 2008, I picked-up an Airvae one from my local Sprint corporate store and paid the $99.
The moron at the store still added the $10.00 unlimited option, plus the monthly service charge of $4.95 AFTER going over that I did not want the unlimited option.
Anyway, our national account manager waived the cost and refunded to my account the charge for the Airave device. Also, I do not pay the $4.95 monthly fee. My house is larger, and was not receiving sufficeint coverage, so I added another unit. I had to pay for the second Airave device, but the $4.95 monthly fee is waived.
The service works as advertised. no problems.
Now, that I see Verizon's Weenie device is the same Sprint's Airave, I offer the following:
1) Could it be that Verizon assumes that their coverage is so good and they have the leading market-share position, they can get away with pricing the unit at $250.00? Now, my assumption is that large national account customers will be able to receive some type of "concession" under the advertised retail price. I wonder if Verizon will also privide "concessions" to retail customers who have no service? Here's where Verizon is different than Sprint, Sprint does not require ANY service (or "bars") in order for the Airave device to work, while Verizon's Weenie requires at least one bar. I could be wrong, but something doesn't smell right here, especially when both units are essentially the same device running over CDMA. Could the software used for Verizon's Weenie be different than Sprint's Airave?
2) The service uses about 160 kbps of your bandwith, so plan accordingly if you have a lower speed high-speed internet connection.
3) With Sprint, you can designate up to 50 phone numbers that are authorized to "synch" with the device, thereby stopping your neighbors from "freeloading" on to your service. In my case, I let one of my neighbors "freeload", but, I also restrict the numbers that can actually use the service so that a few other neighbors nearby don't freeload. Another neighbor, kind of across the drive from us gets pissed because he gets a recording that says something that he cannot access a Sprint private network and he is not authorized to use my Airave. He can buy his own...lol
4) Because we live in an area without Sprint service, the call transfer feature does not work, but after I added the second Airave device, the footprint almost tripled (still no call transfer), hence the ability of my "nice" neighbor whom I also allow to use my Airave device. Could this be why Verizon requires at leat one "bar" for their Weenie to work because of the seemless call transfer feature?
5) No more than three users can be on a call at any one time while using your Airave device. If four or more were to try to make a call, the calls simply do not go through. Not that it matters for Verizon customers, Nextel phones do not work (excpet for Boost Mobile CDMA), but Virgin Mobile (and I would have to assume other MVNO's who use Sprint) do work on the Airave device.
6) The Sprint EVDO internet service does not work with Airave if you are in area (like I am) without any Sprint service. The maximum data rate supported is 153 kbps.
To me, the Weenie is overpriced (unless Verizon lowers the price from what Engadget is reporting). Unless you are under contract with Verizon, Sprint may be a less expensive alternative over Verizon (for all services, not just the Weenie).
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
This would be worth the money if you didn't have to use your minutes while at home. However if you read the fine print it says "Make the most out of your plan minutes". If it were minute free, you could get rid of your landline all together like you can do with the @ home service.
This thing is overpriced...and I agree with the comments of 'why would I pay $250 just to fix Verizon's shitty coverage,' even though Verizon has most of the U.S. covered.
I think people are missing the fact that this would be great for anyone who lives in an apartment (a.k.a. a nuclear fallout shelter) like me. All cellphone signals are instantly asphyxiated when entering my place, and I'm not even under the ground. It's frustrating, but there's nothing Verizon can do about it, because it's not their fault. Both AT&T and Sprint phones have had the same issues in my apartment.
So though $250 is a bit much for something like this, it does serve a good purpose for someone who loses signal in any sort of building.
Yeah, I'd like to see AT&T bring something like this out, too.
To everyone wanting this on AT&T it's already been announced to drop in 2009. I just dropped AT&T and went back to Verizon - here in Knoxville AT&T coverage stinks.
Forgot the link... Here is some info on the AT&T Device: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/ATT-Femtocells-in-2009-99608
Just because we live a distance from a tower, why should we have to pay to get a signal so we can use our cell phones inside our homes. It's Verizon's responsibility. We have already discussed this with Verizon, paid for a better phone (which made no difference), heard the story from Verizon that we live in the edge of the tower signal and etc. Verizon should be responsible for better service, not the public consumer. Our neighborhood is tired of updating our roaming (makes no difference), and talking in our backyards in all kinds of weather on our cell phones. We are now paying for long distance service on our home service, and now pay again????
This is ridiculous. The largest network, but my phone constantly drops calls in my apartment. Called Verizon to complain, they say they do not guarantee coverage inside buildings. How does that help?? I would appreciate a device that helps me actually use my phone indoors, but at $250, no freaking way.
T-Mobile's UMA phones work great and they will connect to ANY wi-fi router. You don't need to purchase any additional equipment. The router they sell will prioritize voice calls over data, but as long as you have sufficient bandwidth it's really not necessary. Plus they will automatically connect to any T-Mobile HotSpot. The handoff between cell towers & wi-fi is seamless. You can also connect to a wireless network when out of the country and call to the U.S. for free. No roaming charges.
I tried the Verizon extender for a basement office. Because there's no line of sight for the GPS and it can't connect, the extender doesn't work. Any solutions?
Thanks!