Sprint Nextel has introduced the “Airave,” a $50 box that, when activated via a monthly fee, allows you to use your Sprint (but not Nextel) cell phones over Wi-Fi in your home for free. For individuals, the pricing is $15 each month, with “family” service for multiple phones at $30.
T-Mobile recently introduced a similar system called “Hotspot@Home,” but unlike T-Mo’s version, the Airave works with any phone that Sprint provides instead of only certain clunky models, which greatly increases the usefulness of this sort of a device.
The Airave will be available in two test markets this year, with nationwide roll-out next year. The box uses “femtocells” to operate, essentially tiny cell radios that had been used in the past to extend coverage in areas with murky wireless access but ample wired internet connectivity.
Sprint Nextel to introduce the Airave [News.Yahoo/AP via CrunchGear]
If it’s totally transparent to the user – and I guess it has to be if it works on regular phones – how is the user to know when the call is being routed for free?
This sounds like easy meat for a class action suit.
Actually, this is a very big deal, mostly because one of the biggest reasons people will ditch a provider is because they don’t get good reception at home.
Just AT&T, please follow suit because I’m gonna get an iphone in January…
As I understand this doesn’t route your cell over Wifi. It actually connects to your handset using CDMA, then routes the call over the internet.
But $15 a month? You can get a CDMA signal repeater pretty cheap these days and pay no monthly fee.
Pass
@#3:You pay no monthly fee but you still get billed for everything that goes through the repeater, and the repeater only works if it can get a decent signal in the first place. With this system you could be 100 miles from the nearest cell and it would still work, and you don’t pay for calls that get routed this way.