Sprints Airave was Sprint's way of saying sorry for the sucky service but we have a plan. That plan: drop $99 initially and then another $4.99 per month for current minutes or $10 a month for unlimited minues on your own personal little cell tower connected to your broadband connection. That's the good news. Bad news: Sprint includes a GPS unit that you have to place by a window to verify you're only using it in the U.S. Bummer, because this would be a perfect travel companion, no?

All in all, a little pricey and not as good as we'd hoped, but hey: Sprint just lost $34 million, how did you think they were going to get that back?

Anyhow, Engadget Mobile gave it a review and the thing works just fine -- for bars and calls. If you're hoping this thing will also beef up your EVDO connection, keep hoping. Word is that it just works on the 1xRTT Vision connection, capped at 153 kbps. Lame.

Update: OK, Sprint made it official this morning.

Starting August 17, Sprint customers will be able to purchase the AIRAVE at Sprint stores across the country for $99.99 (taxes excluded). Customers are required to subscribe to the AIRAVE enhanced coverage plan, which is priced at just $4.99** per month in addition to the customer's regular wireless voice plan. Customers who do not have one of Sprint's unlimited voice plans, such as Simply Everything, can get unlimited in-home calling by subscribing to the optional AIRAVE Unlimited Voice plan for an additional $10 per month** for individuals or $20 per month for families.** For more information, customers can visit www.sprint.com/airave.

Get the full lowdown here.

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Man, oh man, July is getting to be a wee ... bit ... busy ...

After a successful test this spring, Sprint's AIRAVE service is rumored to be going nationwide on July 15, and possibly turning America into one giant cell tower.

AIRAVE hooks into your existing home broadband service and effectively becomes a miniature cell tower, boosting your signal in otherwise poor areas. And unlike T-Mobile's Hotspot @ Home service, Sprint's AIRAVE will work with any Sprint phone (up to three at once) and not just a specialized UMA device.

Dial *99 from your Sprint phone to see if AIRAVE is available in your neck of the woods yet. You'll also need decent line of sight for GPS (for E911) and a free Ethernet port.

But the question remains: Are you willing to spend another $15 a month to increase your own cell signal?

Get the full lowdown at SprintEnterprise.com.

So we all know that these wireless companies don’t have the best reception in the world. The word Sprint almost makes you cringe when your call is dropped or the static sounds like crumpling foil. This would almost make anyone want to switch services at the drop of a hat. Well fellow users there just might be hope.

Sprints new Airave seems to bring light to the end of the tunnel. The new Airave makes a sort of mini cell phone tower in you house that extends reception up to 5,000 square feet from the base. Not bad for a mini me. It works by utilizing existing broadband data service to carry your mobile calls over the internet (similar to Voice Over Internet Protocol). So if you have high speed internet already you should be fine (if not you're up a creek). Some of the eye catching features for Sprint users are the ability to have unlimited voice calls (with a special plan of course). That’s the good news.

The bad news is it’s in selected areas so only a few will enjoy this new service. You can check by dialing *99 and a helpful robot will tell you if it's even an option in your neighborhood.

I personally love the fact that it works with any Sprint CDMA handset. This way if you switch handsets or you friends come over and use Sprint devices, the unlimited feast can begin. Let us know if reception in your house is so bad you had to drop an extra $15 a month for that reception.