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Sprint goes nationwide with Airave femtocell
Sprint is expanding its Airave femtocell offering to all customers nationwide and retooling its price plans for the in-home wireless technology. Starting Aug. 17, Sprint customers will be able to purchase the Airave femtocell, which is made by Samsung, at Sprint stores nationwide for $99.99. To get the additional coverage, they must pay an extra $4.99 per month. Customers that do not have an unlimited voice plan, can get unlimited in-home calling from Sprint by subscribing to the optional Airave Unlimited Voice plan for $10 per month for individuals or $20 per month for families.
Sprint is calling the femtocell a "mini cell tower" and positioning it as a competitor to the T-Mobile@Home service which launched in late June. That offering, which costs customers $10 per month, plus the $50 fee for the router, lets customers use WiFi to make calls when in the home and the cellular network when away from the home. The Airave uses Sprint's CDMA network and is compatible with all Sprint CDMA phones, however it won't work with iDEN handsets.
Sprint initially debuted the Airave in two markets--Denver and Indianapolis--last September. At that time, the company charged an additional $15 per month for individuals and $30 per month for subscribers with family plans. The Airave itself cost $49.99 at Sprint stores.
For more:
- see this press release
Related articles:
Sprint launches femtocell service in two markets
T-Mobile offers landline replacement for $10
Comments (5) | Post a comment
Comments
Posted by DEC | July 30, 2008 - 2:22pm
Someone help me understand why I should pay a carrier to - in essence - improve their network coverage in my living room. If AT&T or Verizon provide a better signal, why wouldn't I just switch to one of them rather than stay with Sprint?
Posted by Anonymous | July 30, 2008 - 4:35pm
Interesting. How will E911 work? If coverage in your house is bad to start with, and you are indoors (no GPS), you're left with the location of your cell tower, which is the Airave...
Posted by Anonymous | July 30, 2008 - 6:51pm
Well DEC why would AT&T and Verizon be developing Femtocell products as well if they are so f'n great? The fact is that all carriers need this and Sprint has the advantage of being first to market with a CDMA Femtocell that will work with all their phones unlike the T-Mobile solution. Just another example of Sprint coming back strong!
Posted by DavidB | July 30, 2008 - 11:20pm
I'm with DEC. This is ridiculous that a customer would have to PAY Sprint for the priveledge of increasing their coverage AND offloading the associated backhaul from something Sprint has to but to something the customer has to buy (broadband internet). Silly. Sprint should be offering customers $10/month OFF of their bill if they install one, and provide the hardware free, and within weeks there will be THOUSANDS around the country. Heck, they already sold off all their cell towers.
And anonymous, I suspect the physical location will be registered to a GPS location. Sprint has already stated you aren't allowed to move the femtocell box around. Besides, the last fix your phone got from sat is likely FAR more accurate than a tower "fix" (which can only provide about a 1 mile circumference location).
Posted by Anonymous | October 16, 2008 - 10:29am
How well does the Airave work on incoming calls ? I'm in a poor coverage area at home and I'm more interested in receiving important calls than I am with sending the calls - I can check the signal bars and walk around if need be.
