Sprint Airave-- I'm raving about it!!

I've said it before : the image of a real estate agent with a phone glued to their ear is not far from the truth. Imagine my life in a great neighborhood with a 75 acre preserve in my backyard surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River Lagoon for the past nine and a half years. Love, love, love it. No cell reception. Ever.

This iswas a problem. Samsung got together with Sprint and made a VOIP type antenna for broadband cable (possibly DSL, I don't know) users. I plugged it into my router yesterday and suddenly had six bars where before --for 9+ years-- there had been none. My life has changed because of technology, again.

If you have no signal, I suggest you run out to your local Sprint store and grab an Airave they're $99--and worth every penny. And, yes, it costs an additional $20/per month on my multi-line plan-- but the minutes you use while you are on your antenna DO NOT COUNT on your plan. And, to be able to use the phones at all while we're in the house is going to be life changing!

I know there are folks out there who think the basic premise of a cellular company is to provide service. The problem is that over the past 9 years I have had: Cingular (before they were BellSouth and before they were AT&T), Nextel (before they were with Sprint) and Verizon. I have never had a signal. See coverage map below. Yellow pin is my house.

So, I was always just grateful that my family had a way to communicate with each other when we were away from the house--and tried not to get frustrated when I couldn't even pick up voice mail or answer calls--from the house. And my constant fumbling refrain was-- can I call you back from a landline?

If you have the same symptoms I had; switch your carrier--like I did, and get an Airave. When you pay the additional $20 per month your phone will be able to pick up on other home signals --Yes, my house is now a cell tower--as long as they are unlocked. You can also choose to lock your personal tower and allow up to 50 phones to use it. Look at all the grey space on the coverage map. Probably 75 real estate agents live within ten miles on that narrow strip of land--how many mortgage brokers, I couldn't say.

There's a growing national trend to go without a home phone--I always laughed before when I heard about it. No, way--no signal. But now I'm starting to imagine...