Sprint Airave

[djcue95]

So I hooked up an Airvana airave at my girlfriend's house since the cell service out there is spotty at best. Upon getting it setup and working, I noticed a few things.. For one, my EVO V showed full bars of service when it normally only had one or none at her house.. Secondly, I noticed I cannot make calls over the airave, which I expected from prior reading. If I go to make a call and the WiFi is on, it will fail and tell me there was an "immediate signal loss". However, if I turn WiFi off, I get full, usable 3G data connectivity and I can place calls, it just resorts to the tower in that area as indicated by the one or none in the signal indicator as well as a lack of three beeps that my Sprint wielding friends would hear when calling over the airave. My texts work fine but my one issue is that I cannot receive inbound calls.. I call place, but cannot receive. Is there anyway around this? Additionally, how is it that I can use the airave's Sprint 3G signal? I know I am using it because when my cell previously tried getting 3G service at her house, the speed was dial-up. Now it is very fast and the airave indicates that data is being transferred... Thanks to anyone who can answer this!

[otakupirate]

[QUOTE=djcue95;14883470]So I hooked up an Airvana airave at my girlfriend's house since the cell service out there is spotty at best. Upon getting it setup and working, I noticed a few things.. For one, my EVO V showed full bars of service when it normally only had one or none at her house.. Secondly, I noticed I cannot make calls over the airave, which I expected from prior reading. If I go to make a call and the WiFi is on, it will fail and tell me there was an "immediate signal loss". However, if I turn WiFi off, I get full, usable 3G data connectivity and I can place calls, it just resorts to the tower in that area as indicated by the one or none in the signal indicator as well as a lack of three beeps that my Sprint wielding friends would hear when calling over the airave. My texts work fine but my one issue is that I cannot receive inbound calls.. I call place, but cannot receive. Is there anyway around this? Additionally, how is it that I can use the airave's Sprint 3G signal? I know I am using it because when my cell previously tried getting 3G service at her house, the speed was dial-up. Now it is very fast and the airve indicates that data is being transferred... Thanks to anyone who can
I am wondering the same thing myself as well. I am thinking about calling Sprint tomorrow and getting an answer. My girlfriend's phone works flawlessly but not my Evo 3d. Wonder why when both use the Sprint network.

[billm261]

I am wondering the same thing myself as well. I am thinking about calling Sprint tomorrow and getting an answer. My girlfriend's phone works flawlessly but not my Evo 3d. Wonder why when both use the Sprint network.

Because phones from Boost and Virgin are not allowed access to the Airave.

I had an Airave for my Photon on postpaid Sprint. None of my Virgin phones would work and it was set as an open network. The prepaid lines would receive a message about being within a private network when trying to dial out.

Airave level 2 tech support informed me that the ESN of the device determined if it would be allowed access to the Airave.

[otakupirate]

Yeah pretty much as billm261 said, it's a no go. Both Virgin and Sprint said so. Doesn't say the private network business as the first Airave did, the 2nd generation won't do that, but it does just default to the towers when making a call. It's so silly though to exclude Virgin and Boost when we're all trying to be budget conscious these days and don't want to be burdened with a contract. I'll deal for the time being, but may end up getting a home phone through the cable company I work for, though for what little calls I get, I don't think it'd be worth the 16 a month I pay for it. Perhaps MagicJack may not be a bad idea to look at.

[djcue95]

Yeah pretty much as billm261 said, it's a no go. Both Virgin and Sprint said so. Doesn't say the private network business as the first Airave did, the 2nd generation won't do that, but it does just default to the towers when making a call. It's so silly though to exclude Virgin and Boost when we're all trying to be budget conscious these days and don't want to be burdened with a contract. I'll deal for the time being, but may end up getting a home phone through the cable company I work for, though for what little calls I get, I don't think it'd be worth the 16 a month I pay for it. Perhaps MagicJack may not be a bad idea to look at.

Awesome. Makes sense now. Thanks all!

[billm261]

It's so silly though to exclude Virgin and Boost when we're all trying to be budget conscious these days........

........may end up getting a home phone through the cable company I work for, though for what little calls I get, I don't think it'd be worth the 16 a month I pay for it. Perhaps MagicJack may not be a bad idea to look at.

Well, from Sprints business side it makes perfect sense. Postpaid has to have some benefits.

There are alternative solutions like a Wi-Ex (zBoost) repeater or amplifier. Maximum Signal and Wilson also make products.

For a home landline take a look at www.nettalk.com as an option. Far superior to Magic Jack in my experience.

[vmobi]

Well, from Sprints business side it makes perfect sense. Postpaid has to have some benefits.

There are alternative solutions like a Wi-Ex (zBoost) repeater or amplifier. Maximum Signal and Wilson also make products.

For a home landline take a look at www.nettalk.com as an option. Far superior to Magic Jack in my experience.

Your observation is accurate, but that is precisely why Verizon offers a better prepaid service (Notice I did not indicate Cheaper). I have not seen an instance where access to VZW prepaid Service differs from their post paid Service. It seems Sprint's current policy, regarding prepaid subscriber access to Sprint's network Service Features is flawed. While it does allow for a less expensive prepaid product, it also enables competitors to provide a more complete service option for those willing to pay more for it. I'm not complaining, but for those who live in fringe coverage areas it makes No Sense to exclude Sprint's own in-house prepaid services from utilizing a Sprint Airave. Are they afraid of providing a better end-user experience? Subscribers of competing services like AT&T and T-Mobile already know of Sprint's native coverage limitations, if Sprint are trying to encourage more VZW and AT&T subscribers to choose a Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile smartphone, it might be time expand prepaid subscriber access to additional network features.

[TheCellphoneGuy]

Your observation is accurate, but that is precisely why Verizon offers a better prepaid service (Notice I did not indicate Cheaper). I have not seen an instance where access to VZW prepaid Service differs from their post paid Service. It seems Sprint's current policy, regarding prepaid subscriber access to Sprint's network Service Features is flawed. While it does allow for a less expensive prepaid product, it also enables competitors to provide a more complete service option for those willing to pay more for it. I'm not complaining, but for those who live in fringe coverage areas it makes No Sense to exclude Sprint's own in-house prepaid services from utilizing a Sprint Airave. Are they afraid of providing a better end-user experience? Subscribers of competing services like AT&T and T-Mobile already know of Sprint's native coverage limitations, if Sprint are trying to encourage more VZW and AT&T subscribers to choose a Virgin Mobile or Boost Mobile smartphone, it might be time expand prepaid subscriber access to additional network features.

I fully agree on the additional network features part. Their new phones - EVO and One V have a roaming indicator in the settings along with possible PRL updates.

It would be great if Virgin Mobile gave us roaming. We don't need data roaming (leave that for Sprint's postpaid network), but they should at least give us voice and text roaming at an additional cost, but not mandatory.

If they can't do that, then they should give us Wi-Fi calling. Any of their Android phones could easily support it via a simple OTA update.

A VM phone is useless as a phone when traveling internationally, unless you have Wi-Fi access. With Wi-Fi calling, they could say something like "Traveling internationally, but want to use your phone? We got you covered with our Wi-Fi calling.

The above may sound silly, but Wi-Fi calling has proven very useful to me in the past and in the future. It will be my primary means of communication back home apart from Skype, when I go to Spain in a few weeks.

[IsLand_BoY]

The above may sound silly, but Wi-Fi calling has proven very useful to me in the past and in the future. It will be my primary means of communication back home apart from Skype, when I go to Spain in a few weeks.

My neighbor will be studying abroad so I sold her my old S II and got her on WiFi calling. It will be just like she's at home, with no extra charges. This is on T-Mo of course. I don't understand why more carriers haven't jumped on the WiFi calling bandwagon. I think it's great.

Sent from my Galaxy S III

[mrfloyd59]

Well, from Sprints business side it makes perfect sense. Postpaid has to have some benefits.

There are alternative solutions like a Wi-Ex (zBoost) repeater or amplifier. Maximum Signal and Wilson also make products.

For a home landline take a look at NetTalk as an option. Far superior to Magic Jack in my experience.

If you stick with Sprint, Wi-ex offers a unit that works with just the PCS band