Saturday, September 22, 2007

Sprint's Airave: A VoIP Alternative

Being on the bleeding edge is not all that it is cracked up to be. Monday I wrote about Sprint's Airave femtocell where they provide unlimited calling to and from the same CDMA phone as long as callers are in range of the cell. My personal attraction to the device was to cover the poor reception that I receive around my home. The Sprint Customer Retention department suggested solving the problem by roaming since Verizon's coverage is much better. Although their remedy would have solved my voice reception problems, I would still have limited to no EV-DO access. My response back to the representative was, "Why would I maintain an account with Sprint for a crippled service when I could switch to Verizon and have it all?" They were dumbfounded, and I gave up.

Installation of Sprint's Airave

A picture of my fully functional Airave taken by my Sprint phone and posted directly to my blog through the femtocell.

Moments later Sprint's Technical Support group (Tier 1) called back and was appalled at Customer Retention's suggestion to roam on the Verizon network. "What kind of retention plan is that?" the technician muttered. She recommended picking up an Airave at my local Sprint retail outlet. A few hours later, I drove to the Longmont Sprint store to pick up a free Airave adapter. The store manager and a salesman struggled for 30 minutes to just scan the ESN and add the service to my account. Finally they gave up and just handed me the box with the instructions to dial *2.

I thought I would activate the product during my drive to Denver Wednesday evening. Of course the activation representative had no clue about the Airave, so they transferred me to EMBARQ's customer service line. Fortunately, I knew how to reach the only group in Sprint currently supporting Airave from my previous adventures with them. After almost an hour on the phone with an advanced technician, she admitted that she could not activate the device. She escalated a trouble ticket to the project manager that would get back to me within 53 hours. Does anyone know why they always say 53 hours?

Finally Friday, after many calls and hours spent with Sprint, my Airave was should start working around 3 P.M. I waited...and waited...and waited for the 4 blue lights to illuminate. I was about to put the device back in its box when shortly after 5 P.M. the GPS light turned blue followed by the System light turning blue. They stayed illuminated for a few minutes before reverting to their typical red state. I powered down my phone and powered it up again. The lights all turned blue and I could actually make calls through it. Valhalla!

For the next hour, I wandered around the house making calls, receiving calls, and testing the 1xRTT data service. I must say that the device works as advertised. My calls are clear and steady as I roam through half of my house. I can send and receive text messages plus roam the web. Sprint calls directed through the Airave remain of toll quality even when I load down my Internet connection. I wish I could say the same for my VoIP service. Funny too since the Airave is at the end of a chain of devices from cable modem, ATA, router, then Airave. My biggest complaint is that the signal falls off quicker than my Wi-Fi router. Sprint advertises an approximate coverage area of 5,000 square feet that equates to a 40 feet radius around the Airave in free space. Forty feet reaches just to the edge of our living room; not enough to cover the whole house unless I can figure a way to install it in the middle of my house. The supervisor that activated my device and set up my account informed me that they are considering increasing power levels to increase coverage.

After a few days playing with Airave, it really has the potential of replacing land lines especially for twentysomethings that have never purchased a POTS line. It offers the simplicity of a single number per person on a single device, and the cost is comparable to most VoIP or digital phone services. Families will benefit because they can each be on their phone simultaneously. No more shouting, "I'm on the phone," or purchasing multiple lines. Around our house we are always looking for the cordless phone that is ringing in the sofa cushions. E911 is supported through the built-in GPS receiver. The only reason I see why I should keep my VoIP service is the inexpensive international calling and slightly higher voice quality . I will be curious to note how our calling patterns shift over the next couple of months. Kudos to Sprint for embracing this technology instead of resisting it.

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14 comments:

  1. For anyone else who gets to this point... the phone number for somebody at sprint who knows what the Airave is: 866-556-7310

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  2. They even answer the phone as "Airave Technical Support." It sure beats being transfered twice.

    Another annoyance is that *2 does not go to customer service. It takes you to activation. Apparently the new Airave telephone numbers aren't recognized by the customer care system yet.

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  3. how does this replace a landline? Since I can't get "naked DSL" -- I still need to pay for a landline phone in order to get DSL. I guess if I had Cable broadband...

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  4. Mike:

    Airave could replace a POTS line because it relies completely on your broadband connection to provide phone service. In your case, you are still required to have a landline with your DSL service. If you could purchase "naked DSL" or use a cable modem, then you could cancel your POTS line.

    You still may find the service valuable if you make several long distance phone calls. You would no longer be charged for long distance calls placed over Airave and they would not eat up the minutes on your cell phone's plan. This feature could reduce the bill on your POTS line.

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  5. What is to keep me from having a "friend" in the Denver area buy one, ship it to me, and I use it in the Sacramento, CA, area? Does the built in GPS tell Sprint that I am not in the Denver or Indianapolis area?

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  6. The unit is associated with your Sprint account. If you are not in one of the three trial cities, then I doubt that they would give it to you. Of course your friend could activate it on his account, then ship it to you. Sprint assigns that MAC ID with phone numbers on the account or will leave the unit open for any phone number. You could have your friend add your phone number to the list of authorized numbers; up to 50 phone numbers.

    Your friend would be paying your monthly service fee since it is pegged to his account. I am not sure if they correlate the location information from the unit with the address on the account. My assumption is that it is used for E911 and to avoid interference with other cell sites.

    If you attempt to use on in Sacramento, post your results to this thread. I am not sure when Sprint is going to launch the service nationwide.

    Mark

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  7. Mike, about your "naked dsl" problem. Talk to your phone company...you may have to talk to a few people at the company since this tends to be a difficult concept for them to understand. Essentially, you want to ask for a "dry loop" on your phone. It will cost you about $5 a month, but it essentially gives you "naked dsl" without it really being "naked". Most of the company won't know what you are talking about, but keep trying. Some is bound to know. This way you can enjoy this service without forking out mounds of cash for local phone service.

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  8. According to the salesperson that sold me mine, the service will only activate if the GPS determines you're within the billing zip code on the account. But getting the thing working is proving to be painful. I still can't get the damn GPS light to go blue, even when I stick the GPS antenna outside...

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  9. BTW, Sprint tech support tells me it can take up to 4 hours for the GPS light to go blue. Apparently they are authenticating something against a signal coming from a Sprint tower so you need to make sure the receiver is in a place that's able to pick up a signal

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  10. My Airave took time to acquire a GPS signal. The 4 hours seems about right. I don't know why it took so long. Subsequent acquisitions did not take that long. Apparently they DO authenticate the Airave's location against the service area. Thanks Andy for confirming it for us.

    Mark

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  11. I have been useing the airave in the the NYC area for a couple of months now. bought on ebay changed my acct billing address to denver, CO and added the airave service.

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  12. That's a really good alternative. Thanks a lot for sharing.

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  13. I have heard a lot about this Sprint's Airave and I have heard a lot of positive feedback. I think this is indeed a better alternative.

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  14. I've also used the airave service for quite some time. I think Sprint is really doing well in providing VOIP service. This is one of the best alternatives indeed.

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    ReplyDelete