April 6th 2010 | Posted by
Robert Werlinger
If you’re a Sprint subscriber and you live in an area of spotty cell service, you’re probably familiar with the AIRAVE, the company’s CDMA femtocell. If so, you’re also probably familiar with the gadget’s limitations, namely its lack of 3G and VoIP support.
We’ve been expecting updated hardware to come down the pike for some time now, and a tipster has recently made us wise to the fact that a refresh to the popular device is neigh, citing an internal Sprint email that’s being sent around picturing a revamped AIRAVE boasting VoIP landline and EV-DO support. Corroborating this tip is a FCC filing recently dug up by the folks over at Engadget.
We’re still digging around for the details on pricing and availability, but it’s probably safe to assume that it’ll be priced similarly to the current offering (free for some, $99 for others, with monthly fees starting at $10). As far as availability, when draft manuals start getting emailed to employees and filings bubble up on the FCC’s website, you can assume that it will be "soon".
Current AIRAVE users: are the upcoming enhancements enough to warrant an upgrade for you?
Thanks to gilligan793 for the tip!
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December 1st 2009 | Posted by
Dieter Bohn
We’ve been anxiously anticipating an update to Sprint’s signal-boosting Airave femtocel for some time now – one that will not only provide a mini-cell-tower in your house for calls, but will also provide genuine EVDO 3G instead of the paltry 1xRTT that the current model offers. Sprint has hinted it would come in 2010.
Well perhaps it has come now. Impulsebuyer in our forums just received a replacement unit that’s significantly different that the original. You can see the new unit on the left. It’s bigger, yep, but another wrinkle is that it tucks the GPS unit away under a door on the top of the device (you can still remove it to place by a window). That should make travel with the unit a bit easier. (That GPS unit, by the way, ensures better E911 location). It’s positively Verizon Network Extender-shaped, if you ask us.
The 64 thousand dollar question, though: does it provide 3G EVDO for data? The fact that this looks pretty much identical to the Verizon Network Extender makes us think we’re just looking at a new form factor. Forum member elder_shawn backs this up. So before you go out and Impulse Buy a new Airave (ahem), we recommend head on into the forums to see more photos and get the final word.
Thanks Impulsebuyer!
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