Sprint Airave takes on T-Mobile HotSpot @ Home

As you'll likely recall, we were pretty impressed when T-Mobile unveiled their HotSpot @ Home service and accompanying dual-mode handsets back in June. Offering free calls over WiFi to customers was a pretty bold step and we saluted T-Mobile for taking the initiative to bring reception to places where there is none. You didn't think that the other carriers were going to let T-Mobile hog that limelight forever though, did you?

You might remember Samsung's similar Ubicell hardware, which the company showed off at CTIA back in March--turns out that Sprint will be bringing the device to its network (under the name "Sprint Airave") in order to launch a very HotSpot @ Home-like service. There are a few key differences, though: the Airave has a range of 5,000 square feet, works with any Sprint phone (other than iDEN handsets), can support 3 phones or 1XRTT data sessions simultaneously and allows you to filter access to the phones/data cards of your choice. All of that, of course, is on top of the usual features like seamless handoff between Airave and the network via CDMA and unlimited free calls over the Airave (with unlimited plan). Even Sprint's pricing is similar to T-Mobile's: unlimited calls over Airave for $15/month. What if you don't care about using up minutes and just want to boost the signal in your cell phone black hole of an apartment by routing calls over Airave? Sprint's got you covered, for $4.99/month. Might we have a HotSpot @ Home killer on our hands?

For more on Sprint's dual-mode play:
- see this Gizmodo article
- and this article from PhoneNews.com