Sprint has been trialing their femtocell-based Airave for months. Now word comes that Verizon is preparing to launch a similar product.
Femtocell technology works by creating a tiny wireless base station for phones to access. Using GPS, the device checks to verify that there are no other femtocells nearby, and then it uses a small portion of the carrier’s available spectrum in an area to offer wireless service. The system requires a broadband internet connection to provide VoIP-based voice over the internet.
There are very few details at this time about the Wireless Hub from Verizon, other than that it will be positioned to directly answer the Airave. Sprint’s Airave however has not yet launched, and is still being trialed in a few markets.
Also developing, Engadget Mobile is reporting that Verizon is also testing QChat, the EV-DO Rev A technology that powers Sprint’s upcoming Direct Connect network for CDMA phones.
Frankly telling I have no idea about Femto cell. But while reading this article it seems that it has a good contact with VoIP. Its truly good enough to know about this.
‘Bout time Sprint gets thru testing, Verizon will have already launch there’s along with nationwide ads. Just like unlimited plans. It’s good to have new technology working as perfect as possible. But come on. What else do they got to loose. Take a chance.
Sprint will let another opportunity get away from them, just like they did with their “testing” of their unlmited plan until Verizon came out with it and guess what, Sprint followed within a few days and lost the marketing edge.
I wouldn’t say Sprint lost the marketing edge. True, they could have come out with Simply Everything first… but what would that have done? That would have gotten Verizon and AT&T to match the offering. Instead, Sprint has the better of the plans now. And, they’re leveraging that in their advertising.
The best complaint that you could make is that Sprint’s budget is the smallest of the three, thus making the competitive advantage harder to promote.
Also, just to clarify, this article did not mean to say (nor does it really imply) that Sprint is finalizing testing of Airave. Sprint has not announced if Airave will ever launch nationally, it is still a test product.
Last I knew Nextel had exclusive rights for QChat. Since Sprint bought them wouldnt that mean they have the exclusive rights?
BrewChat, Qualcomm better not be behind this
[…] “Our plans are to deploy femtocells in 2008,” said Verizon Wireless CTO, Tony Melone. He didn’t give many details, but he did say the company was gearing up for a full-fledged rollout – presumably in direct response to Sprint’s Airave femtocell and T-Mobile’s dual mode HotSpot@Home service. The story was also leaked earlier in the week. […]
The “Verizon hub” it looks like- will be actually released and sold by Verizon Wireless reps in VZW stores. You will be able to add it as an additional line, costs yet to be finalized. You will be able to text, and MMS as well. From some of the material I have seen, it looks as if it may wire into your home phone service similar to comcast digital voice. (Lots of mentionings about regestering home address with E911 service). The hardware vendor is still not being mentioned, even internal to VZW. I’ll keep my eyes open, as I am very interested in the technology.
[…] Posts As you may have read, in past articles we noted (in multiple articles) that Verizon was going with QChat-style technology for its Push To Talk platform. We did note that a refreshed BREWChat was a possibility. Of course, […]
can i buy the phone and use it on comcast or do i have to use verizon home service