We live in the boonies. The QC. Queen Creek, AZ. As a result, our cell phone coverage isn’t the greatest. We have Sprint, and all issues aside, we’ve been pretty happy with them. (Their costs and plans are routinely lower than Verizon, for example. And before you ask why I don’t have an IPhone, it’s due to a few reasons, such as not having great signal from AT&T in the QC, slow data speed, and not being able to customize the IPhone much.)

But unfortunately, we never received great Sprint signal here in the house. I purchased a cell phone signal booster a few years ago, and it does a great job, but I mounted it in the laundry room, since it was the center of the house. What did that mean? Well, it worked great if you stood in the hallway or in the laundry room. Not a great solution.

That’s why I was excited when Sprint announced the Airave earlier this year.  And it finally went on sale Monday.

So, did the Sprint Airave work out?  Click “Continue Reading..” to read my review of the Sprint Airave.

So, what exactly is the Airave?

it is a device considered a ‘picocell‘; a small cell phone tower that can cover up to 5,000 square feet.  Now before you say it’s killing my brain cells, it puts out less power than a wireless router.

So the Airave acts and looks to your cell phone like a regular cell phone tower.  It then uses your Internet connection to send your call to Sprint.  It can support up to 3 cell phones at one time.

So what did it do for my cell coverage in the house?  Before, I would have to stand in certain places in the house to keep a call for longer than a minute.  Very annoying, especially when you work from home.

Now?  I get full signal anywhere in the house.  And can walk around without losing a call without a problem.  It’s like night and day.

You can leave the Airave open to any Sprint phones in range for extended coverage, or you can limit it to 100 phone numbers you can program in.

The drawbacks?  You first have to buy the Airave ($100), then Sprint charges you at least $4.99 a month for the luxury of using your internet connection.  I agree with a charge for the hardware, (you bought your cable modem, didn’t ya?), but the $4.99 a month seems pretty stupid.  If you complain, though, you can get a credit from them every month that will wipe that out.

So, all in all, after less than a week, I’ve been really happy with the Airave.  If you’re a Sprint user, and having signal issues in your house, it’s a great solution.