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Sprint Airave takes on T-Mobile Hotspot@Home
T-Mobile unveiled their Hotspot@Home service and accompanying dual-mode handsets back in June, and now it looks like Sprint may be following in its footsteps. Sprint is set to offer Samsung's similar Ubicell hardware, which the company showed off at CTIA back in March--turns out that Sprint will be bringing the device to its network in order to launch a very @Home-like service, called Airave in Q1 2008. PhoneNews.com's sources claim that the service will have two pricing tiers: One is a flat-rate $4.99 a month fee that will simply boost a users cellular signal while at home. The other, which is more similar to T-Mobile's service, offers unlimited calling through the Ubicell and costs $15-a-month ($30-a-month for a family plan).
Sprint's rumored offering brings with it a few key differences, however: the Ubicell has a range of 5000 square feet, works with any Sprint phone (except iDEN), can support up to 3 phones or 1XRTT data sessions simultaneously and allows you to filter access to the phones/data cards of your choice. Reports, however, indicate that EV-DO speeds will not be available until late 2008 and iDEN will not be supported. All of that, of course, is on top of the usual features like seamless handoff between WiFi and CDMA and unlimited free calls over WiFi. Might we have an @Home killer on our hands?
For more on Sprint's dual-mode femtocell play:
- see this Gizmodo article
UPDATE: This is, in fact, a femtocell, not a WiFi play as noted in the comments below. Apologies for the confusion.
Comments (4) | Post a comment
Comments
Posted by jimbobjones | August 20, 2007 - 12:36am
Er, no. It's nothing to do with WiFi: This is a tiny CDMA cell site that you buy to give you coverage in your home and cheaper calls. The benefit is that it works with any Sprint phone because it's a mini cell site. The negative is that it only works where it is placed. For the T-Mobile UMA system, you need a special dual-mode phone, but it works at any WiFi hotspot and gets you those unlimited calls at home, work, Starbucks, internationally, etc. See the difference?
Posted by admin | August 22, 2007 - 11:29am
Mr. Jones:
The WiFi reference was an error--as corrected above, but the two services (T-Mobile's and Sprint's) are indeed competitive and parallel, whether or not one uses WiFi and the other uses a femtocell. As far as the consumer is concerned, they both promote a better calling experience from a mobile phone while at home.
Brian
Posted by AlbertV | June 17, 2008 - 1:38pm
As much as I like the Airave, I have to say it is very stupid for Sprint to charge a fee to boost your signal. I'm already paying them for the service to provide me with reception. If I don't get good reception, they should at least allow me to buy the unit to boost my signal at no extra cost. I understand I need to pay for the unlimited calling, but not for the signal. In a way, I think T-Mobile hotspot is better because you can use your phone at any wireless router, but the Airave can only be used at home.
Posted by MeMyselfAndI | June 23, 2008 - 6:17pm
I agree with Albert. I should not have to pay to boost my reception.
That is not a "Service"...that is a way to piss off customers who live in a mobile-black-hole.
Especially since it ride *MY* internet connection.
