Sprint has finally chosen a signal boosting solution for consumers and business to install at-home and at-work where the signal just doesn’t reach… and its name is Airave.
This comes after years of testing and trying to select an indoor booster. Sprint has long-recognized the need for their carrier in-particular to have an indoor signal boosting solution, but nearly a half dozen attempted products have failed. Sprint has come close in the past though, sending amplifiers to customers who were threatening to cancel as part of a large trial. However, results from past trials did not yield sufficient results… the devices didn’t provide significant improvements on-average, and in some cases decreased or even disabled coverage near them.
Airave appears to use a broadband connection in order to gain local awareness (in order to prevent too many Airaves from operating in a particular market), as well as handle firmware updates (the Airave does not have a phone built-in, hence it cannot download over-the-air firmware updates).
EV-DO data signal boosting will be added later in 2008, via a firmware update. Unfortunately, not much more is known about Airave at this time, but it is expected to ship in the first quarter of next year.
