dannyg417

I just received it yesterday and I went from 0/1 bar to 4/5 bars. I have one question....I plugged in the GPS antenna and the Airave was up and running in about 40 minutes. I want to move it to the middle of the house (no where near a windows). Will it still need a GPS signal even though it is already up and running?

BillP3393

I use mine in the middle.of the house at least 20 feet from any window and don't use/need the external GPS antenna.

chaosrecords

Ive owned an AIRAVE for 5 months, I also work for a sprint affiliate.
Everything works with an air-rave for the most part.

Yes the air-rave does data.
If you live in a non 3g area, your AIRAVE will only transmit at 1xRTT speeds.
I live in a non 3g area so i cant confirm that it does EVDO

You get full bars which is enough to get you inside and outside your home.

Things like Leaded windows and metal walls will cause interference.

You can soft handoff a call from an AIRAVE to a tower, but you can not soft handoff from a tower to an AIRAVE.
What that means is, if you start a phone call in your home and get in the car and drive off to work the air-rave will hand the call off to your closest tower.

If you drive home from work on a call, and walk in your house ( where you get no signal) you will still stay on the tower until you disconnect. then the next call you make will be on the air-rave at 5 bars

The AIRAVE uses about 50-200kb of data from your broadband connection, thats why they require broadband which starts out typically at 768k +

Things you CANT do with an AIRAVE.

- activate mobile devices like air-cards, and mifi's while on the air-rave
- do three way calls ( as far as i know it dosent work still)
- Take the device to iraq or Europe and use your AIRAVE as a mini tower

I dont know if you can do Phone as Modem with an AIRAVE but why in the world would you want to if you already had broadband.

If you want unlimited calls you have to pay an extra 10 bucks a month to do so from the device.

JRH

I have to look into this thing.....my home signal sux

anzollo

it should work just fine. Voice calls for a land line are usually compressed to 32k, and cell is even less. Your data speeds shoudl seem normal too.

sweetneas

I love my Airave!

bobwonderful

Sprint's Customer Retention is still providing the Airave, you have to pay on your credit card for the system if you are still in your first 30 days, as they will not provide it as a credit to your bill. If you are past your 30 days they should be able to charge it to your bill and provide you credit for it. It's 49.99 plus the $5.00 per month. Call back later and have billing credit it, which they will hook you back up with Customer retention and they will make sure the credit is applied properly. Bottom line, it's worth it to them to keep you as a customer for the long term. Things like this is worth it for me to stay with Sprint (Yes, I switched over from VerizonWireless and am pretty happy so far). I have not received my Airave yet though as it is backordered and they said I should receive it mid month.) Verizon didn't ever offer me this service. They were too big for their britches to even care, until I switched and then they offered $100 bucks credit for me to return. It will take much more than that for me to return as long as Sprint provides me with decent customer service and network service, which has been good so far.

danibal

They are still, most definitely, giving away the airave for free with no monthly charge. It may be because I've been with sprint since 2001 and they literally bend over backwards for me, but I just called up the other day and they're sending me one out at no charge with no monthly fees. They're also going to send me the 3G one when it comes out at no charge (as long as I return the other one). It did take me going to retention and asking for a supervisor before I got the airave though.

Phone Lover

I was also shipped the Airwave for free and no service charge (yet, I'll need to check the next bill but I'm not supposed to be charged). I think it helped that I have contacted Sprint for a couple of months with a home dropped call problem and it dropped a couple of times while I was talking to CS about the problem.

I let CS come up with this solution on its own. I may have nudged it a bit as I asked "is there anything that can improve this?" and "I need a reliable signal for my work as I normally work from home." Eventually, the CS rep. sent me to retentions and told me to ask for it. I had to answer them several times that I keep dropping calls while in the house, this despite being in an "excellent" coverage zone. I also indicated that I recently switched from ATT and didn't have this problem.

Anyway, the Airwave seems to be the solution to my problem. I have had the dropped calls when returning home while on a phone call. I figured it was a hand off problem and hoped it only happened that once. It appears to be a consistent problem though. I guess, if I want to continue the conversation, I'll just sit outside the garage until the conversation is over.

I have a cable internet service and have not have a problem with bandwidth. I have been on the phone and have had to look things up on the internet at the same time without issue. Sometimes, I'm also streaming music, FWIW.

aznxcp4lyfez

I just gave mine a try again but this time i put it right next to a window. Still a no go =[.
I also noticed mines a refurb which i could care less about. But it seems a little destroyed as in the antenna is like falling apart(won't stay up and won't stay connected to base). Hopefully sprint could send me a new one asap. For now i guess i have to live with roam only tweak.

mvpilot172

I'm also promised a "free" airave when they are available. I had to speak to 4 people before I spoke with retentions. I'm very happy with this and haopy I can stay with sprint at my house

jescobe82

Ordered mine over a month ago. Got a post card from them last week stating they are still on back order. Hopefully, will show up soon.

JRH

I was told today they are on back order until the 24th or 27th....I wonder how many they are getting?...considering how many people are waiting for theirs, I'm not sure I will get mine out of the next shipment since I just ordered mine on Monday.

dianehelen

Update on the Sprint Silly String of hit and miss customer service.

I was told about MY AirRave 2 weeks ago now. Initially they said it was backorderd just a few days but Id have it by 9.11

Well of course THAT did not happen. I have called every few days to get an update, and was told any day now..

Today I call and they seem to have gone in confusion mode, and I had to be transferred around 3 times to get to someone helpful.

She rooted around in the account and did find the order, but said it was still saying back ordered but it was odd, that she had JUST ordered someone one, and it was NOT saying back ordered. She said whoever ordered it may have coded it wrong, and it may stay in backorder status forever.

She re ordered it, and it came right up, NO BO status, and she said Id have a tracking number TOMORROW!

I'll let ya know IF that happens.

Such a dog and pony show sometimes with Sprint..

Chefbuckeye70

And here is my story...I have been with Sprint 7 years, purchased a Pre hoping for a better signal than my Instinct in my home, where I get a half bar at best. Pre solved nothing. Contacted Sprint via e-care....No luck just an offer to purchase an Airave and a 4.95 a month fee. Contacted Sprint via Survey sent after online chat. Then I was contacted by "Basil Blair" Customer Service Rep from Sprint on September 3rd. After 6 e-mails and 17+ days I'm offered $49 refurb or $99 new Airave. No monthly cost....I give in, and then I get an e-mail September 17th that they are out of stock, and she/he will send me an e-mail, when more arrive..... I've really about had it with "Basil", I'm not sure if Sprint contracts this part of customer service, but she/he has little concern for my Account. Not looking too good for Sprint in a year and a half when renewal comes up, I doubt I'll forget this event....

11/12: Update Strange enough, I find an e-mail from Basil in my spam folder. I send him an e-mail. I get a call, offering 1.85 Tax fee, everything else NO CHARGE! Maybe those 2000 person Employee Reduction announcements are lighting some fires? Should be here Friday via 2 day shipping.

dianehelen

Follow up:

STILL no Airrave, NO tracking number, more inconsistant calls to Sprint.

Some calls say still backordered, some say, not, its the maddening inconsistency of it that just riles me

So, another day of waiting ...

Afternoon UPDATE:!! Whoa!! Just got an email WITH a tracking number.. wow, will wonders NEVER cease?? Of course yet another phone call had to be made to explain then waive the 20.22 charge that was showing with the tracking number. Apparantly it was an ??Activation?? charge.. hmmm, but they did waive it..
So the saga continues

dianehelen

Received 9/25, took several hours to provision..

I get 5 bars on my Pre when right near the Airrave, goes down to 3 when I leave the room its in. Husbands Instinct went from 1 bar to about 3, in the familiy room.

I'll keep looking at it during the day and see how it goes..

At least I finally got it.. so guess the backorders are shipping.

scholarlv

Yay.. thanks to precentral forums I got my Airave.. All for free, $0 monthly, $0 up front charges.

Get to retention dept. aka Account Services.. Especially if you're new customer they don't want to lose you before the 30days.. At least that's what I think saved me. If the first person trys to charge you, just hang up.

I called and complained about services and get a ticket entered with tech support about the complaint. That's after the first girl tried to charge me $5 per month with free unit. Keep in mind the Airave's are back-ordered so you may need to go to your local store to get it ordered but make sure the retention dept adds notes to your account noting that it'll be free.

vangorcp

I ordered mine on 9/3 and was told it was on back order. Called on 10/5 and it is in but hasn't been shipped. Anyone else get theirs later?

mooshue

I talked to sprint cs today as well, i thought it was our crappy old damaged treo/centro that just couldn't get signal there at the house, but pre is just as bad.
Told them the same thing, they told me for $100 i could get the airave, i told them no thanks, i don't want to have to pay, id just use my cable companys lan phone instead.

They put me on hold and came back with i can do it for $50, i said no, i do not want to pay for something that will let me use my mobile phone in my house, id just use my cable companys lan phone instead and wifi for data. Hold again.

This time a guy came on and asked where i wanted it shipped. Again, i told him i can't justify the payment for something like that, i have a lan line. He said there is no charge. I told him that is cool of him, but i don't want the additional fees on my bill every month either, no thanks.
Hold again.

Comes back, is this the correct shipping address? There is a 1 time 99 cent charge for the device and no monthly fees for you.

Sweet!!!

I have found that if you are nice and play innocent like a dumb hick they will bend over backwards for you. If you try to play hardball, they will tell you to get f'd.
I even got a $50 credit earlier in the week from sprint because i showed them the amazon deal, and wanted to check with them first before i try to return it if they could match the $99.