I received the new 3G Airave from Sprint today. I must say, there is not much of a need for me to turn on Wi-Fi on my phone with this thing running. The below speed tests are from the Airave over my Comcast connection. This is certainly a nice change over the original model that only offered 1x data where my devices would still reach out to local towers and eat up battery. I look forward to seeing what kind of battery savings that I realize with a strong data signal in our home. The real kicker would be having broadband at the cabin and putting this thing to use when needed.
I am very curious to see what Sprint does with the VOIP capabilities that this device offers. It would be nice to consolidate my phones to a single bill but it might be difficult for them to beat our the feature set and pricing that I currently have with another VOIP carrier. This functionality will offer Sprint another revenue stream and likely be a great way to lure people from traditional phone lines.
So far, the new Airave is showing our location correctly on Google Latitude unlike the previous model that showed me a couple of cities away.
I still have 4G in my neighborhood in case Comcast goes down… 🙂
The new Airvana model all ready to go.
4 replies on “Sprint Airave 3G – Airvana Access Point”
[…] + Wi-Fi is better than a 3G femtocell. Meanwhile femtocell users in the real world are finding “not much of a need to turn on Wi-Fi with [a 3G femtocell] running”, and picoChip’s Andy Gothard explains why a “femtocell is simpler and practicaller than […]
Just received May 19, 2011 a new Sprint Airvana Airave for free from Sprint due to their poor in home cell service. Opened the box and the SMELL / ODOR of the Airvana Airave unit about knocked us down! It reaked of a chemcial smell like Burning Plastic. We put it in our utility room but the Central AC unit soon spread the smell throughout the house. WE all ended up with sore throats, lung congestion including out 10 month old son. None of us are happy. Called Sprint 866-566-7310 number and got minor run around at first. Then I explained to them next door neighbor was director of health dept and that he took unit in to be “sniffed”. the their attitude changed. Offered to send another New Unit only after they received this one. Told them I would once the sent a return box which they said they would. neighbor just called said the gas was deemed high carcinogenic but unable to define what chemical smell it is. They did save several gaseous samples for further research. Anyone else have this problem??? Then get rid of your unit right away as that smell is very dangerous to you health. I am seeing an attorney this week over this matter since all of us are not felling well after being exposed to this smell coming from the Spring Airave Airvana unit
Dear Dumazz:
1. you got it for free.
2. knew something was wrong but continued to ignore.
3. endangered your family.
what a idiot, got it free, sprint did him a favor and he continued to use it so he can sue and make some money out of sprint, what a sleeze bag..