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I posted this at PPCGeeks but thought id post here as well:
OK so i recently moved from WA St to Oregon and into a new place obviously. Well my new house is pretty much a dead zone, i had to fight to get 1 or 2 bars, standing outside. I was missing important calls and was constantly dropping network and trying to regain, therefor chewing my Evos battery right up.
Well i saw an article last week that Sprint will be starting to give out Airaves for free to qualified customers. Well i decided to give retentions a call, told them that I might have to switch to att or verizon because i dont get any reception in my new place. They suggested and airave and what it cost, i mentioned that i read that they would be given them for free, with no monthly cost to qualified customers. The guy told me to hold, came back to tell me he will send me one for free with no monthly charge. Id only be required to pay the activation fee. I was like OK.
So today i received a package and a new Sprint Airave was inside. I was a little shocked to see the size of the unit, larger than a regular router or modem, i thought it would be a lot smaller. Anyways i hooked it up to my modem, plugged it all in, waited for about 30min for all the lights to go solid green, therefor it would be fully connected and activated. Came downstairs, looked at my phone and I HAD FULL BARS!!!!!! I jumped for joy, tested a call, had full bars while testing a call. Did a speed test and was received data at 1933kbps and uploading at 822kbps, faster than i ever get on regular 3g.
Overall im impressed that this thing actually works, and works really great. So for those of you with bad reception in your house, inquire about one of these.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, ill answer the best i can, and if you guys have any tests you want me to perform let me know.
Airave
I call Sprint tonight and there going to send me an Airave. They told me 3 to 5 days. I wanted to know the Make and Model of the Airave that you have. How long did it take for you to get yours and what is the range that it covers. Do it cover your back can front yard? Please let me know who make the unit. I want to see if i can find some reviews on it. Thank you in Advance.
I just set mine up and its awesome! completely plug and play (although it took long enough to set itself up that I thought I had something wrong). I have good signal and fast 3g (no 4g version yet). if you can get sprint to give you one of these, totally go for it. even if you have to pay for it its probably worth it IMO.
Is this something you have to hook up to a computer because I'm in the same setuation but no computer lol
Sent from sprint hero cm6.1
Got mine from Sprint a week ago after I complained about bad signal. At first they offered me it for $100 along with a $5/mo fee. I told them I thought it was rather silly I should pay for their lack of service and I already pay $10/mo for 4G (and I have 2 Evos on my plan) which is a limited market. She transfered me to account services who was able to give me it for FREE and NO additional charges/fees! Came in 3 days via UPS.
What you get: The Airave Unit, Cat5 ethernet cable (yellow ), external GPS receiver (optional), power adapter, and various documentation/manuals.
Installation: Plug in the power adapter to the unit and an ethernet cable to the WAN port to your router/modem. Wait about 30-60 minutes for it to activate itself and go online. Once the lights are all solid (Internet/GPS/Wireless) you are set. No configuration or setup is required otherwise.
Use: Your phone should automatically use the Airave since it is the closest 'cell tower'. You should notice full signal strength or close to it depending on where you are in relation to it. The best way to test if you are connected to it is make a phone call, you should hear a double-beep before the call is made (or if you answer an incoming call), which means you are connected via Airave to Sprint's network.
The Airave requires a GPS lock to validate your location as being within the US. You can bring the Airave with you when you travel, though you will still need an ethernet connection in order for it to connect to Sprint's network. Obviously, if you try to bring it outside of the US, it will not connect due to GPS seeing you outside of the US. Sadly, it also does not work in Alaska. The unit itself has a GPS receiver inside, but if you place it in an area with poor reception (two story houses might have this issue), you can use the external GPS antenna that they give you and place it near a window.
The Airave is a seamless addition for most people. If you are not currently using a router, have no fear, as the Airave has two LAN ethernet ports which make it a mini router I believe (I have not tested it though I can't imagine what else they would be for). So you can connect your PC to the Airave and use your internet connection that way.
If you are using a router, I believe it has to support VPN passthrough. I am not entirely sure but most of them nowadays do support it. I am using an Apple Time Capsule (newest generation) and it works flawlessly.
If you are on a call using the Airave and leave the signal range of it, it can hand off the call to another tower seamlessly (Airave -> Tower). However, it cannot do it in the reverse manner (Tower -> Airave). So no worries if you somehow wander out of the Airave's coverage, which I have yet to test the effective range on.
I would recommend 40-80 KBps bandwidth per call, and 1-2MBps per 3G device. Me and my brother use the Airave simultaneously for both voice and data while streaming Netflix, online gaming, and torrenting. I have yet to notice a performance loss in either data or voice. However, if you have a Wifi router, it would be wise to use that instead of 3G.
Another nice benefit is battery life, and as an Evo user I can really appreciate that. Before, I would get 2 bars of 3G at best, usually 1, and sometimes none at all. So my phone was constantly searching for the tower or ramping up the antenna power to talk to it better. Now that the tower is literally within 3 meters usually, it can keep the radio down to minimal power usage. I have noticed a GREAT difference on leaving my phone on my desk overnight with 3G on. Before I would lose a considerable amount of battery (25% or more at times), and now I lose maybe 5% at best. Of course, using Wifi would be optimal since it could switch the 3G radio off in most cases, but for those without that option this is a great way to help battery life at home.
Summary: This device is easy to set up, easy to "use", and does exactly what you'd ask from it. Most people can't justify the price for Sprint's shortcomings, which is understandable, so try to get it for free by complaining and being stubborn about it. If your contract is nearly up, this is PERFECT leverage for you to get one for free.
Did this a while ago as well and I confirm it works. You don't even have to call retentions. There are two ways to do this:
A) Just call them and say that you get no signal in your house and (and if you have an Evo/Epic), justify that you shouldn't pay extra for one by saying that you're already paying for 4G that you're not getting.
B) Tell them you were talking to a representative who was in the process of taking down your information so that he could send you one for free, but the call dropped.
Just make sure to tell them you want the newer model. It can handle more calls and puts out more signal (and supposedly does WiMax as well, but not yet. That's what a rep told me). It's called the "Airvana. NOT THE SAMSUNG MODEL (older one).
Proof it works (I used plan A):
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Too bad, not for new customers
Its a shame i really like there prices and have great service everywhere but inside my house.
But they said I am a new customer and thats with the 30 days is for. I guess I got 27 more days to decide what other cell company I want.
OR I can pay a $130 for one Not going to happen already get raped with the phones!
LAME!
I dont think thats a way there going to get more customers I guess they will always be in 3rd or who knows maybe moved done to 4th.
saw429 said:
Its a shame i really like there prices and have great service everywhere but inside my house.
But they said I am a new customer and thats with the 30 days is for. I guess I got 27 more days to decide what other cell company I want.
OR I can pay a $130 for one Not going to happen already get raped with the phones!
LAME!
I dont think thats a way there going to get more customers I guess they will always be in 3rd or who knows maybe moved done to 4th.
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Look at the post above yours. I got one for free with no monthly charges. Also, if you have an Evo or an Epic (or Evo Shift) and it's rooted, download an app called Roam Control. You can turn on roaming and roam on Verizon for free (it's included in your plan).
Oh and when I asked to be transfered to cancel my acount, I guess they hangged up on me. Whats up with that?
Yeah i know about Roam Control But I wanted to save $10 bucks a month right before they increased the rate on all smartphones to $10 more a month. So I got 3g phones instead.
I was thinking of switching and getting the EVO and pay the extra $10 but its lame that i have to do all this extra work for them. It seems pointless to do so if I cant get a signal. Oh and when roaming it uses you minutes no matter what so that sucks for Roam Control.
Maybe I should call sprint again and give it another try. It makes no sense at all that they wouldnt give me one to keep me as a customer. Strange! Whats the difference between me 2 day customer and a 10 year customer leaving it a lost no matter what.
saw429 said:
Oh and when I asked to be transfered to cancel my acount, I guess they hangged up on me. Whats up with that?
Yeah i know about Roam Control But I wanted to save $10 bucks a month right before they increased the rate on all smartphones to $10 more a month. So I got 3g phones instead.
I was thinking of switching and getting the EVO and pay the extra $10 but its lame that i have to do all this extra work for them. It seems pointless to do so if I cant get a signal. Oh and when roaming it uses you minutes no matter what so that sucks for Roam Control.
Maybe I should call sprint again and give it another try. It makes no sense at all that they wouldnt give me one to keep me as a customer. Strange! Whats the difference between me 2 day customer and a 10 year customer leaving it a lost no matter what.
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Cancel and make a new account or ask to have it converted to this. It comes with a lot of perks and also $10 less for each plan:
http://sprint.com/sero
[email protected]
Employee code 383
That's what I use.
My work gives me a bigger discount then that, it would actually cost me more, I believe. LOL
I didn't have to complain at all...I just played dumb...yesterday I fixed my EVO's 3G problem (change CDMA to Auto PRL instead of CDMA Only) and was trying to watch Sprint TV (not available over WiFi, but is a service included with unlimited data), and just told them I have WiFi but can't watch Sprint TV with it, and that I got terrible service inside my house (2 bars) but I go outside and immediately have full 3G signal and Sprint TV works fine (100% truthful, didn't have to lie)...she asked me to go by a window, where I did get way better signal, and to go outside, and if I had high speed internet, then sent me to customer relations, who then told me I qualify for the Airave 2 and that they'd send it to me 100% free, no contract extensions, and no monthly charges...should be here Monday or Tuesday...will post back with my experiences.
Got my Airvana today...this thing is AWESOME!! I live in an area with advertised awesome 3G but it flies now...I never could stream YouTube, or really do anything unless I was on WiFi, but now I have a choice...plus I can use Sprint TV finally, which is pretty neat...I'm looking forward to actually being able to use my phone now. Was plug and play just as described, but using the external GPS antenna made it ready to ride in about 10 minutes. I highly recommend if you have terrible coverage in your house and you're contemplating a new carrier, this thing works!
Matt262 said:
Got my Airvana today...this thing is AWESOME!! I live in an area with advertised awesome 3G but it flies now...I never could stream YouTube, or really do anything unless I was on WiFi, but now I have a choice...plus I can use Sprint TV finally, which is pretty neat...I'm looking forward to actually being able to use my phone now. Was plug and play just as described, but using the external GPS antenna made it ready to ride in about 10 minutes. I highly recommend if you have terrible coverage in your house and you're contemplating a new carrier, this thing works!
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This thing just uses your home internet connection to broadcast 3G in your home. If you want fast data, you might as well use Wifi since it uses less battery on your phone...
Product F(RED) said:
This thing just uses your home internet connection to broadcast 3G in your home. If you want fast data, you might as well use Wifi since it uses less battery on your phone...
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Didn't see the part where I said I was unable to watch Sprint TV...? Sprint TV doesn't work on WiFi...this is a review thread, instead of flaming, contribute or don't say anything, or at least read AND comprehend ALL the posts before replying negatively...I do mostly use WiFi, but if I missed NCIS now I can watch it on my phone without having to go out to the driveway, or at the very least take advantage of it since it is a service that is included in my plan.
Matt262 said:
Didn't see the part where I said I was unable to watch Sprint TV...? Sprint TV doesn't work on WiFi...this is a review thread, instead of flaming, contribute or don't say anything, or at least read AND comprehend ALL the posts before replying negatively...I do mostly use WiFi, but if I missed NCIS now I can watch it on my phone without having to go out to the driveway, or at the very least take advantage of it since it is a service that is included in my plan.
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You don't know the definition of flaming. Where did I flame? I stated facts. Forgive me for missing the "Sprint TV" part, but you don't have to go ape-**** over it.
Product F(RED) said:
You don't know the definition of flaming. Where did I flame? I stated facts. Forgive me for missing the "Sprint TV" part, but you don't have to go ape-**** over it.
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Flaming, also known as bashing, is hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Usenet, by e-mail, game servers such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network, and on video-sharing websites. It is frequently the result of the discussion of heated real-world issues such as politics, sports, religion, and philosophy, or of issues that polarise subpopulations, but can also be provoked by seemingly trivial differences. (straight from Wikipedia)
Why do I consider it flaming? Simply because this particular thread was about reviewing a device -- the Airave -- not about getting faster data speeds without using WiFi...but rather, does the device work or not, and if so, how well, which my whole point was that it DOES in fact work, not that I'm going to quit using WiFi in favor of the Airave. I don't need advice on getting faster data speeds because I'm well aware that my 20mb down/2mb up over WiFi is GOING to be faster than the fastest 3G, it's self serving, and thus pointless to even bring that up -- but especially in a device review thread. Counterproductive posts are a waste and a pain to read through to get to useful information, which is why no one searches. And on that note -- I'll be getting off my soapbox now.
Matt262 said:
Flaming, also known as bashing, is hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. Flaming usually occurs in the social context of an Internet forum, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Usenet, by e-mail, game servers such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network, and on video-sharing websites. It is frequently the result of the discussion of heated real-world issues such as politics, sports, religion, and philosophy, or of issues that polarise subpopulations, but can also be provoked by seemingly trivial differences. (straight from Wikipedia)
Why do I consider it flaming? Simply because this particular thread was about reviewing a device -- the Airave -- not about getting faster data speeds without using WiFi...but rather, does the device work or not, and if so, how well, which my whole point was that it DOES in fact work, not that I'm going to quit using WiFi in favor of the Airave. I don't need advice on getting faster data speeds because I'm well aware that my 20mb down/2mb up over WiFi is GOING to be faster than the fastest 3G, it's self serving, and thus pointless to even bring that up -- but especially in a device review thread. Counterproductive posts are a waste and a pain to read through to get to useful information, which is why no one searches. And on that note -- I'll be getting off my soapbox now.
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I wasn't hostile towards you. I just told you that you might as well use Wifi. Did I curse you out? No. Did I insult you? No. Please, show me where I was hostile, because you seem to be overreacting. Maybe you're reading the 3 periods as "F U" or something, but believe me, they're not.
I agree with Product F(RED)
locoboi187 said:
I agree with Product F(RED)
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X2.............
Okay, just just get something out of the way here: Only try to get one of these if your service is really bad at house/office.
1: Make sure you actually have dropped calls. Ours were over 5% which is considered really bad, I guess.
2: Call tech support, wait to get connected, then act dumb an say that you've already been through the tech support stuff and you've been talking to a person in retentions for the past half-hour. They'll say well how'd you get to me? Just say that the guy in retentions said that he was putting you on hold to check into getting you a free airave; you've already been through troubleshooting with him.
3: The person in tech support will transfer you back to somebody in retentions and bring them up to where you're at.
4: Tell the person in retentions should go ahead and start the order and then you're set.
5: Is optional. You can have your call drop them, then they'll call you back and you can make a joke about how crappy the service is. (Actually happened to me)
I took the long way through this today, but started in retentions, got tranfs to tech support after checking the drop call rate and doing some basic troubleshooting, then told the guy in TS that I'd been through it all the last last guy in Relations was checking into a free airave for me, but somehow got transfered to him, ect.
I also started out by telling the first guy in retentions that I'd taken 2 phones to the corp store, they had done some PR update (act stupid about it) and now those two phones always have some ^ above the bars at the office, but the service works great and the data speeds can actually load a website in under 3 minuets. The data service at our office has been 0.02 kbps for over a month now, which is why I did the PRL hack in the first place on the two office phones 2 weeks back.
Anyhow, it's on it's way and didn't take that long.
They do check your area and if they feel you are in a good signal area they will not give it to you for free. I only say this because when I called he told me as long as my area qualifies for free airave service he will be able to do it if not I have the option to purchase one. Luckily after he checked the computer he said "great news u qualify". so this will not work for everyone, and it does connect to gps and reports where the device is connected. So good luck, im sure sprint gonna get stormed with calls and eventually they will catch on.
sprink0281 said:
They do check your area and if they feel you are in a good signal area they will not give it to you for free. I only say this because when I called he told me as long as my area qualifies for free airave service he will be able to do it if not I have the option to purchase one. Luckily after he checked the computer he said "great news u qualify". so this will not work for everyone, and it does connect to gps and reports where the device is connected. So good luck, im sure sprint gonna get stormed with calls and eventually they will catch on.
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i just hate talking to sprint reps, you think sprint chat will work?
ryohei47 said:
i just hate talking to sprint reps, you think sprint chat will work?
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Don't think so cuz you gotta talk to the retentions department...i hate talking to them too cuz of those damn scripts they follow, it's like talking to human robots!
Also should mention don't get caught in a lie about talking to them cuz they do have a record of when you call and what department you talked to. So I'm sure if they know you lied they probably will give you a hard time and might make a note on your account that you lied and who knows they might be reluctant to go out of their way for you in the future, I know I wouldnt want to help a liar. So what if you have to be on the phone with them for awhile your getting something for free if your lucky so not really a reason to *****....
The guys I got didn't talk like robots for once, and they were probably from America. I was surprised. They also seemed quite personable.
Hrshycro said:
The guys I got didn't talk like robots for once, and they were probably from America. I was surprised. They also seemed quite personable.
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Yea you can get lucky once in a while...i had a girl from canada one time and we must of had 30 minute conversation after she was done with my issue. It was like we were friends just talking about anything! Was hoping she was local to me I was gonna ask her if she wanted to meet for lunch or something....i kinda wondered since she had my info if she looked up my facebook to see who she was talking to....
sprink0281 said:
Yea you can get lucky once in a while...i had a girl from canada one time and we must of had 30 minute conversation after she was done with my issue. It was like we were friends just talking about anything! Was hoping she was local to me I was gonna ask her if she wanted to meet for lunch or something....i kinda wondered since she had my info if she looked up my facebook to see who she was talking to....
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Haha, That would be funny. Ask a CSR out on a date, then get married down the road. That would be better than a myspace marriage.
Got one quickly
In our condo, my girlfriend's BB Curve and my Evo averaged 1 bar. While online checking our account, I decided to just email sprint and ask for an airave. Went to "contact us", left a messege and the next day we got a call from customer service, 10 minutes latter we were approved, two days latter got it in the mail, hooked it up last night, and now we are at five bars each. I am not saying it will be that easy for everyone, but for once in my life it was!
Very interesting, was thinking of trying this but figure I got no use for the Airave for now...
I get average -104 to -118 dbs which I heard -120 is no service. This is at my house. I get data roaming message and dropped calls. Went into Sprint and said I couldn't get one for free or heard of giving them out for free. Sucks I don't have internet to use it even if I did call and got one. Do you have to pay the 4 bucks a month for it or is that waived. Waived or not id use it.. just no internet.
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Didn't even bring prices to me, so I'm guessing all free.
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Hrshycro said:
Didn't even bring prices to me, so I'm guessing all free.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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If you got it from retentions it is free and the monthly fee is waived. When you go to your account and it lists your devices, it should say retentions next to the Airave.
So if a person were to have terrible 3G speeds they still wouldn't help? My reception is weird, no dropped calls or anything but my reception can shoot up from two bars to four, or six. But my 3G is ALWAYS bad in the town I'm in. Any ideas?
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Systemfraud said:
So if a person were to have terrible 3G speeds they still wouldn't help? My reception is weird, no dropped calls or anything but my reception can shoot up from two bars to four, or six. But my 3G is ALWAYS bad in the town I'm in. Any ideas?
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Just tell them your reception is bad too.
Yeah they don't help you at the store. They just told me they will try to update my phone for tower pulling. Said I already updated the radio to the latest and did the prl update. He said oh well I can't help you then. Wish I had the internet her is call about how bad my reception is and dropped calls. What irritated me the most is txt not going through. Is txt sent by the data service? If I turned data off will I send and receive sms still?
The guy told me it might be the material my house was built with causing the bad signal. If I go out the best reception I get is -100
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How do you see the db of your reception? Sorry for the noob questions.
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##debug# in phone dialer. If you have cm6 you can go through cryon settings and do it. Just type that in the dialer and wait. Click the first one.
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That was the bigger problem at our office, the 3g speeds have been 0.02 kbps fire two months, but I *****ed the drop call problem instead. Im sure you can get one.
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I'm sure I cam get one but won't be able to use. Don't have the internet.
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Thanks Hrshycro!!!
Worked to a tee. Called Tech got transferred and in less then 5 minutes the girl in retention was putting in my order! She did put me on hold for a couple of minutes to confirm my eligibility. It's on the way for free with no monthly charge.
Awesome tip, thanks again!
Well its back up right now (i think) i dont have any one to call right now but the network was down until 20:45~20:50 CST in SE WI. my friend called me on a land-line and told me he was trying to call me. The data on my phone worked the hole time. But 99.9% of out going calls failed and 100% incoming calls failed 100% SMS fail!!!!! I did get two calls to go threw to a AT&T land-line
NOW HEARS THE PROBLEM (SPRINT CAN YOU HEAR ME!) why cant Sprint have emailed us all i understand ith happens and stuff brakes & goes down BUT WHY THE HELL couldn't they of EMAILED us all to let us know that people would not be able to get a hold of us with are SPRINT PHONES!!!!!!
Check the "No data 3G" & the other problem you had on the poll if your data & voice/sms was down.
So lets hears it how many people had no Voice/SMS today? And it would be nice to put your State/City or the Area your in.
Thanks i just kinda want to see the numbers
I'm so ready to go back to Verizon 6 years with them & never a problem (but i REALLY like my Epic :-/ )
http://community.sprint.com/baw/thr...95.app6jive2?start=15&tstart=0&reqsorting=dec
Channel 4 WTMJ in Milwaukee
http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/107618403.html
WOW i guess theirs no one on hear from Wisconsin, Any how i got a free mouth from them They still suck and i am pissed they did not even email us about it and i may still just dump them and go with. U.S. Cell or back to Verizon
Sorry for your troubles. It's odd, even in the nationwide Sprint outages, I never had any issues. I must be in the one area where things don't break.
EDIT: Not in WI, just sayin'.
k0nane said:
Sorry for your troubles. It's odd, even in the nationwide Sprint outages, I never had any issues. I must be in the one area where things don't break.
EDIT: Not in WI, just sayin'.
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Well most of the time all the traffic works grate at your Location lol
zman519 said:
Well most of the time all the traffic works grate at your Location lol
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I don't follow.
127.0.0.1 loopback ;-)
Roam Control is the fix. Force your phone off the sprint network.
Humm I would have got the app if I had known about it on Friday :-/ but now that its back up idk if I really need it.
So I take it your a fan of the app, has it saved ur phone calls when sprint went down before?
I use roam control while I am at work since I only get 1 bar to nothing while there if I am on sprint but if I switch to roaming I have full signal. Also helps out a lot with battery too. If I leave it on auto I leave work with 20% left and that's with out using my phone. If I switch to roaming I usually leave with a lot more left.
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Cool sounds like that would help my battery when my ohone is sitting on my main PC desk. Its always going back andforth. I know there's. A ton of USB ports there but why plug it in every time iam using my computer.
P.S. its the $3.99 app in the markit ?
I had no issues at all (or any other time, really, except maybe once, and that issue was specific to the Hero). I'm not in SE WI, I'm up near Green Bay. Though looking at the link to the Sprint site it looks like I would have been affected as well. But I had no issues at all. And frankly, even if it was down, I didn't notice.
And I don't really see what you're getting so upset about to be honest. Yeah, it sucks when stuff goes down, but I think the "I"M GOING BACK TO VERIZON" statement was a little extreme. Have you had other problems with Sprint? All in all, it was down for what, 10 minutes? That's nothing. The longest I ever had an issue was back when I still used the stock ROM on my hero, and MMS wasn't working for a few weeks. Honestly, though, what good would them sending an email have done? That late in the evening, most people are eating, or out doing whatever (bars, partying, etc), not checking their email, so by the time most people got the email, the issue would already have been resolved. And they did put out a tweet from @sprint, their official account : http://twitter.com/sprint. Sure, it's not really a channel most people follow, and probably one of the last places people would expect to look, but the point is that they acknowledged the issue. And it looks like the whole 10 minutes you were affected was actually far less than others, I read some users stating that the outage lasted all day.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I've had a solid experience with Sprint the last 3 years or so, I'm not going to switch carriers just because of something like this. They've always been super nice about giving me credits for all sorts of things, ringtones/games that I couldn't transfer from one phone to another, and a few other issues. I feel like their customer service has always been top notch for me, and one day of not being able to talk/text is really no big deal for me.
zman519 said:
Cool sounds like that would help my battery when my ohone is sitting on my main PC desk. Its always going back andforth. I know there's. A ton of USB ports there but why plug it in every time iam using my computer.
P.S. its the $3.99 app in the markit ?
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Yeah it is the one in the market for $3.99. Just make sure you plan is set up for roaming otherwise you might end up with charges you didnt plan on. Especially when it comes to data roaming.
SirRipo said:
I had no issues at all (or any other time, really, except maybe once, and that issue was specific to the Hero). I'm not in SE WI, I'm up near Green Bay. Though looking at the link to the Sprint site it looks like I would have been affected as well. But I had no issues at all. And frankly, even if it was down, I didn't notice.
And I don't really see what you're getting so upset about to be honest. Yeah, it sucks when stuff goes down, but I think the "I"M GOING BACK TO VERIZON" statement was a little extreme. Have you had other problems with Sprint? All in all, it was down for what, 10 minutes? That's nothing. The longest I ever had an issue was back when I still used the stock ROM on my hero, and MMS wasn't working for a few weeks. Honestly, though, what good would them sending an email have done? That late in the evening, most people are eating, or out doing whatever (bars, partying, etc), not checking their email, so by the time most people got the email, the issue would already have been resolved. And they did put out a tweet from @sprint, their official account : http://twitter.com/sprint. Sure, it's not really a channel most people follow, and probably one of the last places people would expect to look, but the point is that they acknowledged the issue. And it looks like the whole 10 minutes you were affected was actually far less than others, I read some users stating that the outage lasted all day.
Basically, what I'm saying is that I've had a solid experience with Sprint the last 3 years or so, I'm not going to switch carriers just because of something like this. They've always been super nice about giving me credits for all sorts of things, ringtones/games that I couldn't transfer from one phone to another, and a few other issues. I feel like their customer service has always been top notch for me, and one day of not being able to talk/text is really no big deal for me.
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I see your points, But it was down for hours on a Friday NOT 10 minutes & the 3G was still up so i would have seen said email. This has not been Totally fixed yet Visual Voicemail is down right now. You can leave me a vmail & i will get it if i dial 1 on the phone but theirs no notification that you have x number of vmails
So if your phone is having voice mail problems its most likely NOT your phone and its still sprint having problems. One sprint tech told me it was the hole U.S. and another tech said it was still from Fridays (SE WI) problem & that they are still working to fix it
SirRipo your right its not really getting that upset about its just a phone
For me I have everything to complain about when it comes to Sprint service. This outage that just happened on friday night really set me over the top. The only thing that I'm happy about is the fact that it affected lots of people and not just people in my "neighborhood". I live in South Milwaukee, WI and there is a tower somewhere near my house that FAILS at least 3 to 4 times a year. And when it fails I'm not saying hours of service lost, I'm talking DAYS!!! Every time it happens I call Sprint and they do a test on the towers in my area and I hear the same reply out of their mouths when they figure out the problem, they say, "wow, now that's not a good thing" Well if it's not a good thing then why does it continue to happen every 3 months or so. And the sucky thing about it is the fact it usually happens for the entire weekend. At first I thought that was happening all over again, but this issue was different and affected lots of people. So I guess my question is if this happens again, which I know it will from the track record, do you think I would be able to opt out of my contract without having to pay a termination fee? Sprint says that it's up to the customer service rep that handles my termination of service call whether or not I would be charged a fee or not. The way I see it is if the service continues to fail where I live for days on end why should I have to pay a fee? I know that T-Mobile has 4G up and running here in Milwaukee with the HSPA+ and Sprint doesn't have 4G here at all, and who knows now long it's going to take them to get it. Sprint in my area either works, and works very well, or it's just not there at all, there is no in between.
jaygraffix Thats BS!
i was with sprint years back & i was never happy with them then but i thought that maybe things have changed. I have some time in my 30 days left to dump there ass, I just thought the price was right. (and i love the Epic) But after this BS and hearing jaygraffix problems in a city just a little south of me that i'am in all the time i just may have to move on to there competition.
The fact is sprint nextel is a multi billion dollar corporation and its not going to hit there bottom line to completely replace the tower by jaygraffix house! And i should not have to talk with 6 sprint reps about the VVM not working today & have the finale rep offer me a hole $8.00 credit when the Tech support rep i was talking to before OFFERED ME $25.00 WTF and because i wanted to talk with a CS manager (and did) he only gives me the $8 WTF! less than the guy i was talking to before him! NOW TELL ME YOU WOULD NOT BE PISSED AFTER THAT HAPPENED TO YOU
Maybe if every one in SE WI would dump them all on the same day they would take a hint! (fees & all be DAMED) When i started this tread i was really hoping to see 1000's of hits on the poll but i guess there are just not that many people on this forum from around my area. I Totally see now why Verizon costs what it does.
For anyone who doesn't stray too far from the G2 section of XDA I found this thread in the my old stomping ground Vibrant section.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=815637
Basically, T-Mo is doing a pilot of a home 3G booster for select customers. It is a physical unit they ship to you, and it's basically just a cell repeater. You need to have at least a small amount of 3G reception somewhere in your house, according to the thread.
I sent my email about an hour ago to tmo and they responded within about 30 min saying that I might qualify and gave me a number to call. I called and the loyalty rep asked me a couple questions to verify eligibility. You need to live in a single family home and have a landline (though they did not verify this, just asked and continued on when I responded in the affirmative).
The rep said it would be mailed out Tuesday morning 100% free, the only thing I need to do is fill out the surveys they send periodically to see how the service is working.
Basically, if you get crappy 3G coverage in your house, give this a shot. Several people in the thread have already received the device and said it works great, and I can report back once I receive mine.
So all we do is shoot them an email saying our 3G service is sort of low and that we want to be a tester? Can you post the number?
Apparently if you call a standard CSR they will not know what you are talking about. There is a special email. Here is the email exchange. They gave me their number to call in their response, but I am not 100% certain whether you need to email them first or not. Their email is [email protected].
Here's my exchange:
from MORESIGNAL <[email protected]>
to T***** Bunch <[email protected]*******.com>
date Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 3:02 PM
subject RE: Weak Home Signal
hide details 3:02 PM (1 hour ago)
Dear T-Mobile Customer,
We have reviewed your recent coverage concern, and you may qualify to be part of a free, in-home device trial! The device is designed to boost 3G signal inside your home. We look forward to speaking with you regarding your eligibility. Please call us at 1-877-724-4659 for details!
T-Mobile Customer Loyalty Team
Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you have questions, please call us at 1-877-724-4659.
From: T***** Bunch [mailto:[email protected]********.com]
Sent: Friday, February 18, 2011 2:13 PM
To: MORESIGNAL
Subject: Weak Home Signal
- Hide quoted text -
I'm a long-time T-Mobile customer (509-***-****) who's on the verge of cancellation due to difficulty in getting a signal at my house. I read some internet forum posts about a T-Mobile trial of a Nextivity signal booster that sounds like it might allow my phone to work at home and enable T-Mobile to salvage a customer account.
I have a G2 and my wife has a MyTouch3G Slide and only in a couple areas of our house we can get 3G coverage. Unfortunately this is very frustrating for us as we pay almost $150 per month for our service and have very low-speed data while we are in all the common areas of our house.
I live in WA and am willing to fill out surveys on my experiences with the booster. Please let me know if I can be included in your trial.
T***** Bunch
[email protected]********.com
509-***-****
I'm sending an email, just because of my interest in the technology Thx for this.
Thanks for the info! I just sent them a letter
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
Sent one as well.. My phone has two bars of 3G sitting beside me but when I pick it up it will go to Edge or even GPRS in certain areas of my house. However I go a few blocks down the street and I am full tilt "4G"
I've seen this happening a bit with AT&T customers with bad reception, getting phemtocells to boost 3G performance inside their house.
Although I don't really get why you would do this with T-mobile? especially if you have a G2, why not just use WiFi calling and call it a day?
I am really excited to see if we qualify for this. In my room I get 3G alright, but most of our house is on edge, and our living room gets little to no cell reception at all. If someone who still has 3G coverage in their house can get this, than we should definitely be able to as long-time (10 years +) T-Mobile Customers.
Our housing association turned down building a cell tower near my house not too long ago to address the concerns of everyone in this area and I was really ticked at them for not doing it.
martonikaj said:
I've seen this happening a bit with AT&T customers with bad reception, getting phemtocells to boost 3G performance inside their house.
Although I don't really get why you would do this with T-mobile? especially if you have a G2, why not just use WiFi calling and call it a day?
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This is of course assuming one has wifi in their house to begin with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
TJBunch1228 said:
This is of course assuming one has wifi in their house to begin with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
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ya its nuts that some people still dont have wifi, it costs like 20-30 bucks at walmart for a router lol.
i wonder if those same people are still paying for 56k speed on AOL.
TJBunch1228 said:
This is of course assuming one has wifi in their house to begin with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
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I find it hard to believe that someone reading XDA doesn't have WiFi in their house.
And even lighter, I'd be surprised if someone who has an android phone with a $70+ phone plan including data doesn't have WiFi lol.
Just sayin it would be easier to just turn on WiFi calling then order a microcell.
martonikaj said:
I find it hard to believe that someone reading XDA doesn't have WiFi in their house.
And even lighter, I'd be surprised if someone who has an android phone with a $70+ phone plan including data doesn't have WiFi lol.
Just sayin it would be easier to just turn on WiFi calling then order a microcell.
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This is for people who don't have home internet or only have slow DSL obviously. Of course if you have a great ISP and a wireless router this thread is moot for you.
Don't sign up for the free equipment if you are happy with your wifi calling and wifi data. Simple as that.
martonikaj said:
I find it hard to believe that someone reading XDA doesn't have WiFi in their house.
And even lighter, I'd be surprised if someone who has an android phone with a $70+ phone plan including data doesn't have WiFi lol.
Just sayin it would be easier to just turn on WiFi calling then order a microcell.
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Agreed lol
I've got a really beasty Net gear router with 8 internal antennas and almost 800mhz processor in it.... and I STILL get barely enough wifi to do wifi calling in my bedroom
So this thing would be perfect for me. I get great data outside, and other parts of my house, but I swear my room has lead walls *it's an addon to the old house*
i ordered mine today hopefully i will no longer have dead spots in my bathroom and back bedroom. and they waived the shgipping cost. tmo is really trying to keep their customers happy.
Thanks for sharing. I ordered one today. I didn't bother with the email and just called the number. The rep asked if anyone else needed one. My folks got two more, one for home and another for office. No shipping, no strings, lifetime use. They may ask you to answer some questions by email about the product. No big deal there.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
tsalate said:
i ordered mine today hopefully i will no longer have dead spots in my bathroom and back bedroom. and they waived the shgipping cost. tmo is really trying to keep their customers happy.
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Service in the bathroom? sounds like a 1 way ticket to water damage.
But yea it seems like T-mo is really trying to keep their customers. I'm on a non-contract plan and they treat me amazingly lol.
You're gonna sit there with a straight face and tell me you throw birds at pigs while you are deucing?!
Madness
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
What number are you calling? I called the one in the thread, and I get some real estate company. I have yet to get an email response.
brfield said:
What number are you calling? I called the one in the thread, and I get some real estate company. I have yet to get an email response.
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The number in the 3rd post of this thread, my email from them, is the one I called..worked fine yesterday.
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App
TJBunch1228 said:
Dear T-Mobile Customer,
We have reviewed your recent coverage concern, and you may qualify to be part of a free, in-home device trial! The device is designed to boost 3G signal inside your home. We look forward to speaking with you regarding your eligibility. Please call us at 1-877-724-4659 for details!
T-Mobile Customer Loyalty Team
Please do not reply to this e-mail. If you have questions, please call us at 1-877-724-4659.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for this post. It gave me an idea of what we needed to do to get into this program. Here's my experience: We called into the program (at the number listed above) and told them that we had a weak signal in our house and heard about this pilot program to provide cell boosters to customers. The representative was extremely friendly through the whole call, and asked us some of the questions above or listed in the other post (landline, home, 911, etc). Good thing we were prepared with this. After going through all that they told us they'd be sending it free with the stipulation that we return it if they end the program and that we answer 3 surveys. Fully worth it from our perspective.
Our reception problems are bad here...
I didn't tell them this, but I think the problems got way worse with our new roof. In most of our house we either get edge or no reception (in two particular places incl our home office) but in my room we get 3G (Lucky!). I'm really excited about this program and that I found this post my first day on the "Normal" G2 forums (I'm normally reading the Dev section).
Aloha
ARGH. First it took me two days to root the Xoom, now I can't keep a stable 4G/3G data connection. I've gone through 3 SIM cards, and Verizon is telling me that "something" is hanging in their system which won't let me properly activate, so I have to send my Xoom BACk in to Motorola and have them look at it. Anyone else have any nightmarish stories about their Xoom after the 4G upgrade? I live in Detroit and have excellent 4G coverage...my Thunderbolt has 5 bars. I've tried selecting only CDMA, same non-working result.
So sorry that you're having problems. I hope you will be able to get it fixed and have a chance to enjoy it.
okantomi said:
So sorry that you're having problems. I hope you will be able to get it fixed and have a chance to enjoy it.
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It's official. My Xoom is possessed! Shortly after I started this thread, the stupid thing all of a sudden activated itself, and now I have 4G, and it's been on for about 2 hours....WTH? I called Verizon, and they told me that they DON'T see the device active...something's REALLY strange here.....I'll keep an eye on it for a day or two, but if it goes back out, it's going back to Motorola.
tdetroit said:
It's official. My Xoom is possessed! Shortly after I started this thread, the stupid thing all of a sudden activated itself, and now I have 4G, and it's been on for about 2 hours....WTH? I called Verizon, and they told me that they DON'T see the device active...something's REALLY strange here.....I'll keep an eye on it for a day or two, but if it goes back out, it's going back to Motorola.
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Now that is funny, about the possessed. I hope it goes all well for you.
Are you trying to run tiamat or stock? Tiamat doesn't seem to support 4g devices currently.
To clarify tiamat runs for me, when I restore my pre-upgrade image everything but 4g and 3g is fine. I get internet only on wifi. However, the stock update from Moto that it came back with works perfectly.
Also, why did it take 2 days, once the sdk is installed it should be as easy "fastboot OEM unlock" then pushing a few files. It could be possible you messed with your radio or something if you were confused as to what you are doing.
You accept all inherent risks associated with rooting and using custom roms one of which is that your data connection may be flaky.
In the case of trying to get a device to work in a particular fasion I would highly recommend 100% stock until working properly and then moving from there.
In other words... don't tell us you're ready to smash your Xoom because of something you did to it.
I sent my xoom in and had the upgrade down. When it arrived back It was not activated. and would not activate.. I called VZW the first guy I talked to said he would be more then happy to activate my xoom again and that I would have to change my current VZW plan i have with verizon from my current 3g/3gigs plan to a new 4/whater gig plan for more cash. I hung up on they guy and looked threw VZW website and found info about the upgrade, and I found where it says you will not have to change your plan after the upgrade. So i call VZW again this time the guy i talk to sends me to what he calls a stage 2 rep. I talk to him tell him what the first guy told me and then qouted off there website about How i do not need to change my plan. he looked over my account and found that when they upgraded my xoom they screwed up when they entered my sim msein and med info into there system. 3 hours later 2 phone calls and finally he gets all his ducks in a row and finally a working 4g xoom is in my hands.. (and I DID NOT have to change my plan.) and yes i mistype alot. but in my defense only the first and last of a word has to be correct for the human mind to be able to read.
Well my 4g randomly goes from 4g to nothing. Althougth I have bars they are grey and no connection.
My wifi then decides which networks it will connect to and which ones it won't. My router has duel networks set up the same way. Won't connect to 1 but will connect to 2. My friends house full bars standing 5 feet away from the router. Hit connect drops to nothing and cycles remembered / analyzing. Same settings as my router at my house. I go to Toyota connects instantly.
The radio is possessed. Stock Xoom never routed I just got it back this week. And wow battery life is crushed. But WOW is that 4g lte some fast kinda fast my upload is 8mbs!..........when it works
Sent from my Xoom using xda premium
tdetroit said:
Ready to throw my Xoom
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Don't so that it break real easy! broke mine the other day, dropped it three feet onto carpet
hotdiamonds said:
Don't so that it break real easy! broke mine the other day, dropped it three feet onto carpet
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WOW? Really? Mine went down the stairs on hard concrete not even a scratch. (it helped that it had a cover .) but it didn't brake.
To the other guy, don't give up.
mpmorph said:
WOW? Really? Mine went down the stairs on hard concrete not even a scratch. (it helped that it had a cover .) but it didn't brake.
To the other guy, don't give up.
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Mine went 'thud' not 'bounce'