Had it for 5 days......:(
While it is an interesting concept, it does not work as implied..
5k square feet?..nooooo wayyyy...my home is 3k and I could not get a signal standing about 15 feet from the Airave.
When it woked, it worked great but what is the point of having to stand so close to the unit?
Dropped calls like crazy if I was 10 feet or more from the unit.
(yes I moved the router to 6 different locations).
EVDO does not work over the Airave, if you send or receive a msg, it looks for the EVDO signal to push it. Meaning that I could be right next to the airave, full bars, if an email was sent to my bb, it would drop to 1 bar (normal signal at our location), receive the msg and the a couple of min later pick up airave signal.
We just moved to a new location were Sprint's coverage was almost non-existent so the airave was the "answer to our prayers" as we were happy with sprint's service.
After days of talking with airave's tier 3 tech support, the were able to lower power thus increasing significantly the Airave's signal. We were happy but it only lasted a day. I noticed that the problem was back and called. Tech support told me that they had to undo what they did the day before as the Airaive was producing frequencies that they were not allowed to use eventhough that fixed my problem. So took it back and said bye bye to Sprint.
So, my advice to people looking at the Airave (if you qualify)...BEWARE...not all that is hyped to be unless you want to stand next to the Airave all the time.
HOw does it compare to H@h from T-mobile?
I don't have anything against Sprint, but the 8320 (with the H@H service) totally blows Sprint's Airave..
The blackberry will pick up Wifi signal almost as good as a laptop..probably no quite the same distance but pretty close.
They are totally different concepts...
While the Airave has the advantage of being compatible with every CDMA phone, its signal reach is useless. Also for the Airave to work, it must detect a GPS signal, if it doesn't it won't work. So that pretty much leaves a basement installation out of the question.
No notification on the phone itself if you are within Airave coverage. You would either have to start a call or dial *99 to check. When you start a call, it will beep while using Airave coverage. Other than that,no visual alerts.
On the 8320, the Wifi icon lights up (while within reach ofthe router) plus Edge switches to UMA meaning that your calls are being routed thru your internet connection.
Also let me add that with the H@H service, the phone (using your router's internet connection), is the one that connects to T-mobile's infrastructure while with the Airave, the unit itself has to connect to Sprint's infrastructure and then your phones uses that connection. Plus remember...NO EVDO while using the Airave, if you are getting an EVDO connection, it is only because it is detecting a signal from a tower nearby.
Sorry for the long post but I wanted forum members thinking of going the Airave way to have all the info...
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