WirelessAdvisor.com

larry · 08-18-2008, 11:35 PM

Well I decided to give it a shot and picked one up today. It was a challenge to get one since my local Sprint store apparently hadn't been trained on them yet and I was the first one to come in for one. Eventually they figured out how to activate it and I came home and hooked it up.

After about 20 or 30 minutes it was all set up and ready to go. I did get a nice improvement in signal to the places in the house that I needed it most. As most of you know I have trouble receiving incoming calls due to the dreaded CDMA NID border.

Maybe my expectations were a little too high but I didn't get as good of a signal from it as I had hoped. There were a lot of reviews going around on various forums and most people really hyped this thing up. But so far my call quality has been excellent and I haven't missed any incoming calls as the Airave has it's own NID that doesn't fluctuate.

There is one minor problem involving text messages. For some reason my Rumor isn't mixing well with the Airave. If I attempt to send the same text to multiple recipients it produces an error message on the last recipient on the list. So for example if I send any message to let's say 3 people at the same time it sends fine to the first two but fails on the third. This happens every time. I believe I have narrowed it down to being an LG Rumor bug.

I will post more when I get a chance to use it more and perform more tests on it.

larry · 08-18-2008, 11:35 PM

Hopefully Anthromatt will post a review on his later tonight. He just got one as well.

larry · 08-19-2008, 1:27 AM

By the way user 'Gman' attempted to get an Airave today but was turned down because he's on a SERO plan. I still think he will find a way to get one but why discriminate against SERO users?

Bill Clinton · 08-19-2008, 2:03 AM

I'm on a SERO plan and I had no trouble getting mine. I even got signed up for the Unlimited use for no extra charge. Sorry to hear that Gman hasn't been so lucky, but a second try might produce different results. With Sprint a lot can depend on who you talk to.

larry · 08-19-2008, 2:10 AM

It could just be that the Airave thing in the Sprint stores is so new and not all employees are trained properly about them. Or maybe it's something that telesales can handle better?

Jay2TheRescue · 08-19-2008, 2:43 AM

As far as your texting goes, how about listing yourself as the last recipient?

-Jay

AnthroMatt · 08-19-2008, 2:48 AM

I will post a detailed review in a couple days...I need to wait on feedback from my girlfriend (she has a Rumor and a Treo 700wx) since I can't make any use of the Airave with my Nextel phone. So far I would say my experiences pretty much mirror those of Larry's exactly.

larry · 08-19-2008, 3:17 AM

A few more things to add.

My old and chronic problem of getting duplicate text messages has gone away! Woo Hoo!

Incoming calls all make it to me now whereas before I would miss about 25% of them. Not only that but they come in faster as well.

Even though the signal bars on my phone do degrade as I move away from the base my EC/IO is very consistent. The EC/IO is actually the more important number when measuring signal quality on CDMA phones and I am consistenly getting -02.5 to .-04.5 no matter where I am in the house. This is MUCH better than I used to get before.

Hopefully these good results will keep up over the next couple of days and I will post any more updates as I go along.

Gman · 08-19-2008, 10:24 AM

The store had the ability to sell the device but was unable to add the coverage only service. They really tried by calling lots of different #'s. They finally figured out that it was my SERO plan that was the issue and was preventing them from adding the device/plan option. I asked them much earlier if they thought that was an issue. I was in the store for 90 minutes standing around unfortunately.

This morning I received an email saying that Airave unlimited has been added to my account ($10) but not the coverage only option ($4.99) that is necessary with that and which I actually wanted . They did not sell me the device either so I have more work to do to figure this out .

Jay2TheRescue · 08-19-2008, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gman

The store had the ability to sell the device but was unable to add the coverage only service. They really tried by calling lots of different #'s. They finally figured out that it was my SERO plan that was the issue and was preventing them from adding the device/plan option. I asked them much earlier if they thought that was an issue. I was in the store for 90 minutes standing around unfortunately.

This morning I received an email saying that Airave unlimited has been added to my account ($10) but not the coverage only option ($4.99) that is necessary with that and which I actually wanted . They did not sell me the device either so I have more work to do to figure this out .

Sp they added the service, but never sold you the device? That's crazy.

-Jay

Gman · 08-19-2008, 11:05 AM

They sure did. I tried an online chat session which I knew had low likelihood of helping and they said I need to call telesales to purchase one.

Gman · 08-19-2008, 1:35 PM

My issue has been cleared up through retensions. A very,very nice woman helped me.

larry · 08-19-2008, 4:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gman

I was in the store for 90 minutes standing around unfortunately.

Ugh!

It took me about 20 minutes to convince my local store that I could add an Airave for only $4.99 /mo. They insisted I would have to pay the $10 or the $20. Eventually I convinced them that there was a $4.99 option and after some searching they found it. But if I had been an uneducated customer like 90% out there I'm sure they would have just stuck me with the $20 option even though I didn't need it. I was the first one to buy an Airave at my local store and none of the employees had even been trained on them yet at this particular location. I had to teach them about it. lol

larry · 08-19-2008, 11:04 PM

Well another problem came up. The Airave has a hard time handing off to local towers once I leave my house and drive away. It fails to make this 'hard handoff' about 50% of the time it seems. But with multiple NID's and pilot pollution in this area I'm not surprised that this is happening.

larry · 08-20-2008, 8:25 PM

Things I like about the Airave:

Sprint has made it possible for the Airave signal to dominate the intended area. I no longer have to worry about my phone bouncing around on multiple PN offsets and NID's. It stays locked on the special Airave assigned NID and PN and even if I move outside to where the signal from the regular network is actually stronger it will still favor the weaker Airave signal. This might not sound good but it is because if it were to start yielding to the regular network while I was walking around the house (upstairs and outside) I would be back to the same problem again. Whoever designed this thing obviously programmed it to remain dominant for as long as possible and only to yield when the Airave signal is completely gone. Plus I no longer have to disable Vision after every use. Pre-Airave I would have to disable Vision because of constant data activity on my phone due to the NID bouncing which caused decreased battery life.

Plus the EC/IO (signal noise) is amazingly good! Having an EC/IO of less than -05.0 at all times is something I could only dream about before. In many cases I am even as low as -02.5. With this excellent EC/IO you can hold a perfect call all the way up to -100 dBs or more.

Things I dislike:

The LG Rumor can't function properly for text messaging. If you try to send the same message to multiple recipients the last one on the list fails every time after wasting about 20 or 25 seconds trying. This apparently is only a bug with Rumor or maybe with other LG phones as well.

Handoffs to the regular network are actually 'hard handoffs' and are prone to drop and cut out for a second or two while transferring to the next cell site.

sctoy · 08-21-2008, 6:25 PM

I picked up an Airave yesterday and experienced the same frustration with a Sprint Staff that was selling one of these for the first time. It took an hour to get the sale complete.

However, even more frustrating is the fact that it is sucking down the battery of my Treo 700p at the rate of about 12% per hour when merely on standby. When I am having a conversation the drain is more rapid and plugging it in during the call only allows me to tread water in terms of battery life. I fear this will be a deal killer for me.

Bummer.

larry · 08-21-2008, 6:28 PM

Wow first I have heard about that problem. I wonder if it is a phone specific issue?

sctoy · 08-21-2008, 6:32 PM

I don't know. I have swapped batteries and the behavior is the same so we can rule out that particular portion of the hardware but it is nasty.

The other issue which may also be phone specific is that the first call I try to make is dropped before it connects when returning to a range the Airave covers. Every subsequent call is fine and I don't have the problem until I leave and return to the Airave area.

AnthroMatt · 08-21-2008, 6:34 PM

Weird. My girlfriend has a Treo 700wx and has not experienced those issues.

larry · 08-21-2008, 7:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sctoy

The other issue which may also be phone specific is that the first call I try to make is dropped before it connects when returning to a range the Airave covers. Every subsequent call is fine and I don't have the problem until I leave and return to the Airave area.

I'm glad I haven't experience that problem. I wonder if these are just software bugs that are phone specific? My LG Rumor has a bug where it won't send multiple text messages to different recipients at the same time. It will send to everyone expect the last recipient on the selected list. Other phones don't have this particular problem.

sctoy · 08-21-2008, 7:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larry

I'm glad I haven't experience that problem. I wonder if these are just software bugs that are phone specific? My LG Rumor has a bug where it won't send multiple text messages to different recipients at the same time. It will send to everyone expect the last recipient on the selected list. Other phones don't have this particular problem.

Could be. I'll experiment a little more but if it continues to drain my battery this fast it is a non-starter for me.

08-18-2008, 11:35 PM	#1 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	I got an Airave Well I decided to give it a shot and picked one up today. It was a challenge to get one since my local Sprint store apparently hadn't been trained on them yet and I was the first one to come in for one. Eventually they figured out how to activate it and I came home and hooked it up. After about 20 or 30 minutes it was all set up and ready to go. I did get a nice improvement in signal to the places in the house that I needed it most. As most of you know I have trouble receiving incoming calls due to the dreaded CDMA NID border. Maybe my expectations were a little too high but I didn't get as good of a signal from it as I had hoped. There were a lot of reviews going around on various forums and most people really hyped this thing up. But so far my call quality has been excellent and I haven't missed any incoming calls as the Airave has it's own NID that doesn't fluctuate. There is one minor problem involving text messages. For some reason my Rumor isn't mixing well with the Airave. If I attempt to send the same text to multiple recipients it produces an error message on the last recipient on the list. So for example if I send any message to let's say 3 people at the same time it sends fine to the first two but fails on the third. This happens every time. I believe I have narrowed it down to being an LG Rumor bug. I will post more when I get a chance to use it more and perform more tests on it.

08-18-2008, 11:35 PM	#2 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave Hopefully Anthromatt will post a review on his later tonight. He just got one as well.

08-19-2008, 1:27 AM	#3 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave By the way user 'Gman' attempted to get an Airave today but was turned down because he's on a SERO plan. I still think he will find a way to get one but why discriminate against SERO users?

08-19-2008, 2:03 AM	#4 (permalink)
Bill Clinton 10 years scandal free.... Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: New York and Vermont Posts: 479 Phone(s): HTC Mogul, Nokia 6085 Provider(s): Sprint, Unicel Devices: Dell XPS M1710, Dell XPS 400, IBM T61P, +more Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Images: 64	Re: I got an Airave I'm on a SERO plan and I had no trouble getting mine. I even got signed up for the Unlimited use for no extra charge. Sorry to hear that Gman hasn't been so lucky, but a second try might produce different results. With Sprint a lot can depend on who you talk to.

08-19-2008, 2:10 AM	#5 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave It could just be that the Airave thing in the Sprint stores is so new and not all employees are trained properly about them. Or maybe it's something that telesales can handle better?

08-19-2008, 2:43 AM	#6 (permalink)
Jay2TheRescue I'm Jay the Dry Cleaner.. Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Sterling, Virginia Posts: 10,121 Phone(s): Moto V3, A845, HTC Tilt, Moto V551, iPAQ 6515, Western Electric 302, 500, Ericsson Ericaphone Provider(s): AT&Tingular 310-410 Devices: Zune 30gb & way too many BT devices to list Thanks: 24 Thanked 25 Times in 23 Posts Images: 157	Re: I got an Airave As far as your texting goes, how about listing yourself as the last recipient? -Jay __________________ GET A FREE $25 AT&T GIFTCARD WITH ACTIVATION OF NEW AT&T SERVICE FROM ANY DEALER. PM ME FOR DETAILS

08-19-2008, 2:48 AM	#7 (permalink)
AnthroMatt Big Meanie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 8,322 Phone(s): Motorola V950 Provider(s): Sprint + Airave Thanks: 3 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts Images: 1	Re: I got an Airave I will post a detailed review in a couple days...I need to wait on feedback from my girlfriend (she has a Rumor and a Treo 700wx) since I can't make any use of the Airave with my Nextel phone. So far I would say my experiences pretty much mirror those of Larry's exactly.

08-19-2008, 3:17 AM	#8 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave A few more things to add. My old and chronic problem of getting duplicate text messages has gone away! Woo Hoo! Incoming calls all make it to me now whereas before I would miss about 25% of them. Not only that but they come in faster as well. Even though the signal bars on my phone do degrade as I move away from the base my EC/IO is very consistent. The EC/IO is actually the more important number when measuring signal quality on CDMA phones and I am consistenly getting -02.5 to .-04.5 no matter where I am in the house. This is MUCH better than I used to get before. Hopefully these good results will keep up over the next couple of days and I will post any more updates as I go along.

08-19-2008, 10:24 AM	#9 (permalink)
Gman Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Diego Posts: 470 Phone(s): Treo 700P Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Images: 10	Re: I got an Airave The store had the ability to sell the device but was unable to add the coverage only service. They really tried by calling lots of different #'s. They finally figured out that it was my SERO plan that was the issue and was preventing them from adding the device/plan option. I asked them much earlier if they thought that was an issue. I was in the store for 90 minutes standing around unfortunately. This morning I received an email saying that Airave unlimited has been added to my account ($10) but not the coverage only option ($4.99) that is necessary with that and which I actually wanted . They did not sell me the device either so I have more work to do to figure this out .

08-19-2008, 11:05 AM	#11 (permalink)
Gman Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Diego Posts: 470 Phone(s): Treo 700P Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Images: 10	Re: I got an Airave They sure did. I tried an online chat session which I knew had low likelihood of helping and they said I need to call telesales to purchase one.

08-19-2008, 1:35 PM	#12 (permalink)
Gman Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: San Diego Posts: 470 Phone(s): Treo 700P Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Images: 10	Re: I got an Airave My issue has been cleared up through retensions. A very,very nice woman helped me.

08-19-2008, 11:04 PM	#14 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave Well another problem came up. The Airave has a hard time handing off to local towers once I leave my house and drive away. It fails to make this 'hard handoff' about 50% of the time it seems. But with multiple NID's and pilot pollution in this area I'm not surprised that this is happening. Last edited by larry; 08-20-2008 at 2:36 AM.

08-20-2008, 8:25 PM	#15 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave Things I like about the Airave: Sprint has made it possible for the Airave signal to dominate the intended area. I no longer have to worry about my phone bouncing around on multiple PN offsets and NID's. It stays locked on the special Airave assigned NID and PN and even if I move outside to where the signal from the regular network is actually stronger it will still favor the weaker Airave signal. This might not sound good but it is because if it were to start yielding to the regular network while I was walking around the house (upstairs and outside) I would be back to the same problem again. Whoever designed this thing obviously programmed it to remain dominant for as long as possible and only to yield when the Airave signal is completely gone. Plus I no longer have to disable Vision after every use. Pre-Airave I would have to disable Vision because of constant data activity on my phone due to the NID bouncing which caused decreased battery life. Plus the EC/IO (signal noise) is amazingly good! Having an EC/IO of less than -05.0 at all times is something I could only dream about before. In many cases I am even as low as -02.5. With this excellent EC/IO you can hold a perfect call all the way up to -100 dBs or more. Things I dislike: The LG Rumor can't function properly for text messaging. If you try to send the same message to multiple recipients the last one on the list fails every time after wasting about 20 or 25 seconds trying. This apparently is only a bug with Rumor or maybe with other LG phones as well. Handoffs to the regular network are actually 'hard handoffs' and are prone to drop and cut out for a second or two while transferring to the next cell site.

08-21-2008, 6:25 PM	#16 (permalink)
sctoy Shoulda joined long ago! Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: California Posts: 3 Phone(s): Palm Treo 700p, Blackberry Pearl 8120, MotoRazr v9m Provider(s): Sprint (Treo), T-Mobile (Bb), Verizon (Razr) Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: I got an Airave I picked up an Airave yesterday and experienced the same frustration with a Sprint Staff that was selling one of these for the first time. It took an hour to get the sale complete. However, even more frustrating is the fact that it is sucking down the battery of my Treo 700p at the rate of about 12% per hour when merely on standby. When I am having a conversation the drain is more rapid and plugging it in during the call only allows me to tread water in terms of battery life. I fear this will be a deal killer for me. Bummer.

08-21-2008, 6:28 PM	#17 (permalink)
larry Go Angels! Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Orange County, CA Posts: 12,870 Phone(s): LG Rumor Provider(s): Sprint Thanks: 11 Thanked 14 Times in 14 Posts Images: 146 My Auctions	Re: I got an Airave Wow first I have heard about that problem. I wonder if it is a phone specific issue?

08-21-2008, 6:32 PM	#18 (permalink)
sctoy Shoulda joined long ago! Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: California Posts: 3 Phone(s): Palm Treo 700p, Blackberry Pearl 8120, MotoRazr v9m Provider(s): Sprint (Treo), T-Mobile (Bb), Verizon (Razr) Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: I got an Airave I don't know. I have swapped batteries and the behavior is the same so we can rule out that particular portion of the hardware but it is nasty. The other issue which may also be phone specific is that the first call I try to make is dropped before it connects when returning to a range the Airave covers. Every subsequent call is fine and I don't have the problem until I leave and return to the Airave area.

08-21-2008, 6:34 PM	#19 (permalink)
AnthroMatt Big Meanie Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Mesa, AZ Posts: 8,322 Phone(s): Motorola V950 Provider(s): Sprint + Airave Thanks: 3 Thanked 11 Times in 8 Posts Images: 1	Re: I got an Airave Weird. My girlfriend has a Treo 700wx and has not experienced those issues.

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