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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting
QCOM 165.13+1.1%3:59 PM EST

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To: DanD who wrote (82810)9/17/2009 11:03:02 AM
From: Jon Koplik1 Recommendation  Read Replies (2) of 196766
 
"Real world" experience re: femtocell (Sprint "Airave") service ...............................................

One of our kids is away at a college where Verizon Wireless has much better signal strength than Sprint. (We are all Sprint customers in this family. Sprints works very, very well in South Florida.)

I learned today from the Sprint "Airave" tech support people :

The piece of hardware that makes the femtocell function -- is currently on "back order." (Which, I hope means that the product and the service are a "hit" with consumers.)

Last night when I was doing a little "research" into femtocells, I came across a BusinessWeek article

businessweek.com

where the BW person essentially "trashes" Sprint Airave service, although -- does so in a manner that did not make much sense.

For example :

"at the outer edges, call quality was spotty"

One of the reader comments said something like : "Okay moron -- when you use a cordless phone, and you are near the edge of the coverage area, are you surprised when the quality of the call begins to deteriorate ?"

---------------------
If you read some of the reader comments, some say :

Product works exactly as promised; signal strength went from around "one bar" straight up to five bars." I love this product.

and some say :

This product sucks. Do not buy it."
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(I have read in Wired magazine (or maybe some place else) about businesses where the entire business is hiring people to post FALSE negative reviews / reader comments on the Internet. It is disgusting.)

Anyway ... the "big news" :

What I learned this morning from Sprint "Airave" tech support people :

Sprint femtocell ("Airave") has NOT functioned in any dorm room on any college campus in the entire U.S., because :

Every college has your little Ethernet connection jack in the wall going to a "switch" type thing instead of a "router" type thing. (I think that was the "key" to the situation.)

This protects the whole college Ethernet from potential BAD stuff.


This is disappointing, but ... I can understand it.

Jon.
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