Sprint PCS' Airave, Cost Shifting?

The Sprint network may have been the first network to go "all digital", but being an innovator in any industry your company is going to bare the brunt of the research and development cost. The payoff, being the leader and getting first crack at the new market share your product or service created.Then others follow your lend, add to your findings, and make the product or service better. It's the heart of capitalism, competition. Sprint coverage is getting out done by most major carriers. Other carriers, for one thing, are much more apt to deny you a service contract if your credit is bit smudged.

It would seem Sprint's solution to lack of network infrastructure, is YOU. Airave by Samsung is Sprint's newly announced add on to help you get a signal...as long as your high speed internet connection is up and running. Airave uses the internet to place calls thus helping to ease those overage charges and nasty dropped calls. When the signal from your Airave is out of range it seamlessly jumps back to the Sprint tower. This servers two purposes: first, if they sell enough of these units it may enable Sprint to take a reasonable sized chunk out of the cost of keeping up with growing network demands, secondly it will enable Sprint users to place calls in buildings that insulate there Sprint handsets from the tower's signal.

If you factor in the unit cost vs. the amount you can save by reducing you overage charges, or changing to a lower tier plan, the Airave makes an underachieving wireless carrier a bearable bargain.

"Starting today, Sprint customers in select areas of Denver and Indianapolis will be able to purchase the Airave at area Sprint stores for $49.99. Sprint plans to make the Airave available later this year to customers in the remainder of Denver and Indianapolis, along with Nashville, and to customers nationwide in 2008."
[via Sprint]

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