Another satisfied Sprint customer (Airave)

I finally got tired of dealing with the crappy service in my apartment (I was supposed to be in an excellent service area) and called tech support. They tired telling me that Sprint doesn't guarantee service inside a dwelling (a reasonable point if devices like the Airave didn't exist).
I had them transfer me over to Customer Retention and told them I was looking at other cell providers if they couldn't do something for me. That something is a free Airave and I would be willing to pay the monthly service.
After a while he was able to arrange it and put in a request that the service fee be waived. Now I am just waiting on it to be delivered. Complaining actually does the body good.

I tried to get a free Airave and they tried to get me to cancel my service instead. lol.

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I also got a free Airave with free service for my daughter when she moved into her college house. She went from frequent dropped calls to great service. Retentions was the department that took care of me. On a side note, if you get a good retentions rep, try to get their contact info and deal with them on serious issues. I have been dealing with the same rep for about 1yr now and he has always been able to resolve any issues. chesterhound

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My free Airave is in the mail right now. I can't wait for great call reception once again. It only took two emails to get it. :)

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My airave wasn't free but I love mine! It provides so much more reception! :)

I have my free airave sitting in the closet, since they didn't notify me about the service fee so I had to manually cancel it.

Mines sitting next to a window off, it caused my BB to go in out of services at times. When it worked, it was great.

I also have one and it is off, if I came from out of the airrave area into it I dropped the call.

They actually sent me 2 accidentally and I still have one in the box, lol

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What is this "airave" of which you guys speak?

Originally Posted by papped

I have my free airave sitting in the closet, since they didn't notify me about the service fee so I had to manually cancel it.

They will waive the monthly fee, Papped. Just give retentions a call.

Originally Posted by MrsTokyo

What is this "airave" of which you guys speak?

Basically it's like a mini cell-phone tower for your personal use. It connects to your broadband connection (cable or dsl), and provides a cell phone signal for up to 3 Sprint cell phones to access simultaneously. When you call while using an airave, your calls are routed through the internet instead of having to communicate with a cell tower. Basically, you'll get 5 bars of service.

It costs $100 for the unit, and there's a monthly service fee for it. Unless your service keeps cutting out, you don't really need it. My cable internet cuts out more often than my Sprint phone (which actually never cuts out). As mentioned above, if you threaten to cancel, you may get Sprint to waive the monthly fee. I'm not a bluffer, though. If I say I'm going to cancel, and they don't care, I actually with follow through (unlike others, who will call again and again until they find someone who caves in).

Originally Posted by SoCaliTrojan

Basically it's like a mini cell-phone tower for your personal use. It connects to your broadband connection (cable or dsl), and provides a cell phone signal for up to 3 Sprint cell phones to access simultaneously. When you call while using an airave, your calls are routed through the internet instead of having to communicate with a cell tower. Basically, you'll get 5 bars of service.

It costs $100 for the unit, and there's a monthly service fee for it. Unless your service keeps cutting out, you don't really need it. My cable internet cuts out more often than my Sprint phone (which actually never cuts out). As mentioned above, if you threaten to cancel, you may get Sprint to waive the monthly fee. I'm not a bluffer, though. If I say I'm going to cancel, and they don't care, I actually with follow through (unlike others, who will call again and again until they find someone who caves in).

I never threatened to cancel, they just told me when they sent the AirRave to call retentions and get the fee waived.

Originally Posted by Semantics

They will waive the monthly fee, Papped. Just give retentions a call.

Yeah, but it's not even really worth it. The thing has some bugs like what was mentioned about going in to an airave coverage area when on a call outside.

Also if your dsl/cable bandwidth available is low and you make a call in airave coverage, it will use the airave even if your bandwidth sucks and cell tower coverage is better. This can result in extremely bad call quality...

Does anyone have any experience connecting the Airave to the internet using Windows ICS? My school won't let you connect directly to the ethernet with anything other than a single computer, and Sprint support was absolutely worthless when I contacted them.

Originally Posted by SoCaliTrojan

Basically it's like a mini cell-phone tower for your personal use. It connects to your broadband connection (cable or dsl), and provides a cell phone signal for up to 3 Sprint cell phones to access simultaneously. When you call while using an airave, your calls are routed through the internet instead of having to communicate with a cell tower. Basically, you'll get 5 bars of service.

It costs $100 for the unit, and there's a monthly service fee for it. Unless your service keeps cutting out, you don't really need it. My cable internet cuts out more often than my Sprint phone (which actually never cuts out). As mentioned above, if you threaten to cancel, you may get Sprint to waive the monthly fee. I'm not a bluffer, though. If I say I'm going to cancel, and they don't care, I actually with follow through (unlike others, who will call again and again until they find someone who caves in).

lol, gotcha good sir! Sounds like a pretty handy device, but I don't think I need it..

Is the Airave service beneficial to cell phone service only, or Internet service as well, bc I have Verizon DSL and thought that I could use it to obtain better DSL frequency. My cell service is very good in my area. I was just wondering if this would benefit me. I called Sprint Reps and they were no help in explaining this service. they mentioned that it will only support Sprint products (phones).

No, the Airave uses your DSL's bandwidth to make calls. So if you have poor DSL connection, then the Airave is pointless anyways.

Ahh! I just got mine working. I had to stick my GPS antenna out the window using a 3-foot piece of wood. Perfect service now, though! :D

Originally Posted by TheBiles

Ahh! I just got mine working. I had to stick my GPS antenna out the window using a 3-foot piece of wood. Perfect service now, though! :D

why do you need that gps antenna? doesnt the airrave come with an antenna on the unit itself???

Originally Posted by BerryWriter

I'm not sure the antenna is designed for outdoor use. Better be careful when it rains! :)

Don't worry; I've got it inside two plastic bags taped to a stick. Apparently the extra foot outside of my window made a world of difference for the reception.

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Originally Posted by cheech4

why do you need that gps antenna? doesnt the airrave come with an antenna on the unit itself???

The GPS antenna has nothing to do with the airave effectiveness. It's simply to prevent people from using the Airave in regions that are not allowed.