Sprint has officially launched its long awaited indoor femtocell solution designed to extend and facilitate coverage inside homes and buildings with poor reception.
The Sprint Airave is a cellular basestation manufactured by Samsung that relies on an Ethernet connection leading to broadband internet access that splits available spectrum around the coverage radius of the device, up to a maximum of 1500 sq. feet.
The device is now available directly from Sprint for a one-time fee of $99.99 with an additional $4.99monthly AIRAVE Enhanced Coverage Charge on top of unlimited access starting at $10 a month for single lines and $20 a month for family plan access up to five lines.
The Airave has been shrouded in controversy ever since its quiet launch by Sprint in the Denver and Indianapolis markets last year due to its similarities to T-Mobile’s Wi-Fi UMA based HotSpot access and has led others to criticize the carrier for using this as a stopgap in lieu of increasing actual coverage via conventional cellsite construction.
Update: Sprint contacted us to let readers know that Airave will not begin shipping until August 17. This is in contrast to reader reports that Airave units have been ordered and shipped.
From what we can tell, Sprint has halted orders for Airave via its internal Direct Ship system. As such, you will not be able to order an Airave at this point, until August 17.
Furthermore, thanks to our reporting, Sprint has updated the Airave site to clarify the matter.
At least the T-Mobile service gave a no monthly fee option that just deducts airtime from your plan minutes. Will this be added to simply everything or will it be added to the list of everything else
WRONG! Just went to the Sprint Store and they said this is in error. They are still not available everywhere, and they said “I don’t know why they have posted it out there that it is”
Oh, and she also said that availability wasn’t until “sometime in August or September”
This would be interesting as an optional free add-on for Sprint customers… but why would I pay an additional monthly charge to improve cell reception? Isn’t the phone supposed to work to begin with? Why wouldn’t I just switch carriers?
It would only really be worth purchasing if you wanted unlimited calling at home. @Tired, if you actually followed the link you can check what areas are available. The article doesn’t actually say it’s a nationwide launch, merely that Sprint officially launched it.
Tired, are you in an affiliate market? Did you show them the Sprint web page linked in the article?
I went to 2 sprint stores and I called telasales and nobody knows anything about this. How can you put this on there web site and nobody knows?
It’s about time. Now I can cut my home phone off and just use my mobile. I thought airwave worked with in 5000 sq feet not 1500?
Retail stores are not selling the device in stores until late August.
then where can you get it. Telasales finally told me to go back to a sprint store
I have one and it works GREAT and i LOVE it
Yes 5,000 sq feet..
I think it works a lot farther…
Easy and works great ..
Honestly, those of you who have been having trouble finding them, you just need to find a more informed representative. They have been available in Sprint’s system for me to sell for months, and I am only an exclusive dealer. I’ve sold dozens of them so far, and only good reviews. We can’t stock them in our store, but we can have them direct shipped to your home.
One thing that everyone needs to keep in mind – they guys who write TV commercials for Cell Phone Companies are not the people putting up towers. TV commercials have raised expectations of coverage to the point where people expect 5-bar signal while locked in a bank vault 2 stories underground. This is a very unrealistic expectation. Read the fine print on carrier contracts – absolutely no carrier “guarantees” coverage within a building. Wireless coverage is a “best effort” service, in general, and not subject to anywhere near the same guarantees as wired service. The Airave at least offers the opportunity to use a single phone and number with no airtime cost when using the Airave. Goodbye wired home service!
It’s only $4.99 a month to get the improved reception. It doesn’t require any other costs. The $10 individual unlimited calls and the $20 family unlimited calls while on the unit are optional. If you don’t add the optional unlimited calling fee, then you’re either using your plan minutes during the day, mobile-to-mobile minutes if it’s another Sprint Nextel customer, or your night & weekend minutes after your night minutes start.
It’s actually a great feature for people who live in low reception areas or have trouble with receptions in their home. Just as Mike said….phone reception is not guaranteed indoors by any wireless carrier.
Sprint customer service is never up on anything. It’s a shame. I called last week and they told me sprint wouldn’t be offering a windows mobile 6.1 upgrade because too many tweaks hurt the phone hardware. He proceeded to say he worked for 9 years and knew his stuff. Little did he know the update was already out officially through sprint.
Back to this. Is this the solution to wi-max partnership with comcast?
Is there service THAT bad that they have to resort to this? I think Verizon is starting to cut them off on roaming. Sprint won’t even support me if I’m roaming, even if I am still paying for extra roaming.
Is Airave availabe in affiliate markets (iPCS) anyone? My sprint rep can’t even answer that question for me, or wont. I would love one in my house.
It has nothing to do with the lack of service that sprint offers now, Master_moguler.
In area’s with wildlife and national parks, places surrounded by farmland and mountains. It is almost impossible to place a multi-million dollar tower, when land owners wont allow it.
In my location, this happens in quite a few places. so Airave is a huge improvement and great accessory to offer.
As far as the comparison to the T-Mobile unlimited calling from home(hot spot) plan. Their plan is ONLY available for 2 devices, the Blackberry Curve and the Samsung t409. Sprint offers it on any sprint CDMA device.
The Airave is now on the order form in affiliate markets. It will more than likely hit stores within the next 2 weeks, depending on which affiliate market you’re located in.
VA affiliates have already ordered it, and are waiting on delivery.
This is actually a little screwy…
It costs more than $4.99 a month, since you must also have broadband service.
So..I understand this is a huge and helpful thing, and saves Sprint from needing to put up a tower for 4 people to get better reception….but shouldn’t Sprint eat the cost of this device?
i.e. I am paying for the bandwidth they are planning to use. I am paying for the cellphone service….
Why would they want to nickel and dime you for a feature that is essentially making network deployement easier on Sprint?
It does not cost more than 4.99 monthly to use AIRAVE.
To use Airave you must already have broadband(Cable/DSL) established in your home. You are more than likely not paying Sprint for your Cable/DSL usage, depending on your location…since sprint does not offer in home dsl/cable in most places anymore.
How would you correctly state that they are trying to “nickel and dime” you on a service that other carriers arent even offering.
Verizon has been terrible in my area for the last 5 years. The population has grown in thousands within those 5 years alone. There is still no plan set to build a Verizon tower in this location.
Why should sprint spend millions of dollars in an area where the population is 200…period? The Airave is a solution for those people.
I think that the customer base would be happy that Sprint is choosing to direct their profits in a direction to improve customer service and product availability, rather than building multi-million dollar towers in a much less demanding area.
The Airave requires a broadband connection to function correctly.If the customer is happy with one thing, they’re going to throw something else in to complain about, obviously. I’m not aware of many people who have an allotted amount of bandwidth to use on a monthly basis with their current home DSL/Cable provider. So if you have no worries on an overage of bandwidth, there should be nothing left to complain about. If you do have an allotted amount of bandwidth, I would recommend switching to a different dsl/cable provider…whether or not you plan to purchase the airave.