Sprint Airave review

We tested the Airave with the Sanyo Katana Eclipse in San Francisco. We already had pretty decent reception, about three bars, so we didn't know if it would make that much of a difference. To our surprise, the signal strength went up to a full five bars almost immediately. When making calls while the Airave is connected, you will hear two short beeps prior to ringing, so that you know the Airave is functioning. If you have the Airave unlimited calling plan, all calls made while connected to Airave won't be deducted from your minutes.

Sprint claims that the Airave supports multiple active callers, depending on available bandwidth. One active caller requires 40Kbps of upstream and downstream bandwidth, two active callers require 80Kbps up and down, and three active callers require 120Kbps up and down. Extra calls will be directed to a cell tower instead. Also, if you leave the house while connected the Airave, the call will automatically redirect to the nearest cell tower without dropping the call. We tried this by leaving the house while on a call, and indeed, we didn't experience any difference in the call quality. That said, the Sanyo Katana Eclipse already has pretty good quality, so we'll test this out with other Sprint phones.

If you're a Sprint customer, you want to get rid of your landline, and you happen to live in an area with poor cell coverage, we would definitely recommend getting the Airave. We're a little disappointed that it costs a monthly fee, but it's certainly a lot cheaper than most landline fees.