Verizon Intros $250 In-Home Network Extender
Starting this week, Verizon customers who are disappointed with coverage within their own home can exchange $250 for the promise of having an outstanding signal within a 5,000 square foot area of where the Network Extender is installed. Unlike Sprint's solution, which sells for just $100 but requires a monthly fee of at least $5 to use, Verizon has decided to price its box at $250 while doing away with monthly service fees.
In theory, this gives mobile phone users the ability to completely ditch their standard telephone and rely solely on a cellular provider, but you'll want to ensure you have enough minutes per month to cover the gap should you decide to do so. If you'll recall, we had previously heard that AT&T was busy testing a femtocell solution of its own, and company spokesman Mark Siegel has asserted that it should be ready to "conduct customer trials in at least one market in the second quarter" of 2009. Better enjoy the days you have left, landline -- it seems your days really are numbered.
Comments
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Unless you happen to have a ridiculous bandwidth cap on your broadband . . . in which case talking over the phone will bite you. That's actually an interesting question. I know ComCast got in trouble for giving preferential treatment to their VoIP service, but does VoIP count towards your cap? |
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Actually - you could stay on the phone all day for the entire month using the G711 codec (64kb, worst efficiency/best quality), and you would use less than 21GB of your 250GB quota (maybe a tiny bit more due to data link overhead). This is kind of near my thoughts, as I spent the entirety of 2006-2007 deploying IP telephony to forty+ locations for eight thousand users. But, I'm feeling much better now. |
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I just wish my phone line would run faster so i could use the internet faster.
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I had actually seem this a couple months ago in the store. It's about time they started doing this. The technology has been around for awhile. I installed something similar in the capital and visitors center several years back but for all carriers. I am assuming it's an omnidirectional antenna. good stuff guys! |
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This is acutally a little different. Cellular range extenders have been around for a while, but they require at least some signal in order to work. The best ones have an outside antenna, signal amplifier, and an indoor antenna. These things are just an indoor antenna connected to an internet connection. VoIP via cell phone. |
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yeah not sure about those. The one's I worked with connected directly via ip no outside antenna. Of course I am not an expert on these things. I kinda got suckered into the job. We were suppose to just be installing fiber for them and some how ended up pulling heliax cable and installing the antennas. |
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Hey, cool, guess I was mistaken about what you were dealing with. If I could find a generic one that didn't cost $250 I might actually buy one for my place and drop my landline. |
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thats alright. But by no means was the system we put in cheap. definately not for your home user. I couldn't agree with you more Savage. We have 4 cell phones in my house between me and my wife and I still insisted on a land line. |
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I am not a fan of dropping your land line, especially if you have a security system in your home, the land line is the best, and in the case of some voip carriers only way for your security system to communicate with it's central station. With voip it is a crap shoot, lose internet or cable, which around here happens pretty often, and your security is down. |
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