Eight-year Sprint customer here. I’ve had Sprint in a variety of locations across three states. Great reception anywhere near a city or highway. I haven’t once, ever, dropped a call. 

We have an Airave cause we live in a rural area. It works great for us. We have had ours about 3 years and I wouldn’t give it up. Its a great thing to have. The only draw back is not from Sprint but from our cable company. If the cable goes out so does the Areave, other then that its great. 

I have had the Airave for 3 years.  I have the older model which does not transmit 3g data speeds.  I have 30mbit wifi, so at home, who needs 3g on phone.  New model does do 3g data through it to the phone.  It works AWESOME.  You can get this for free and force them to credit you back the 5/month charge as long as you can prove to customer service that your home should be fully servicable and you cannot make voice calls or they cut off.  Usually voice cannot be done good unless you have 2 bars.  data will work tho.  It is by far one of the best hidden gems of sprint service..

Since a broadband connection is required, does the AIRAVE work by handling your calls via VOIP?

Mousecreek, Our Airave doesn’t handle calls over VOIP. Its like having a mini cell tower in our home. 

Since May, Sprint has been “upgrading” the tower in my neighborhood to 4G. Hence, the tower is out. 30 days ago received the Airvana. Only reason I didn’t cancel the 5 lines I have. Live in solid cement walls so the range is limited, but at least no more dropped calls and static.

Tried to activate the iPhone 4S and it took 4 techs over 4 hours and countless equip. resets to no avail. Told them I had the Airvana. Finally hopped in car and drove a little bit until another was active. The iPhone activated in under 6 minutes.
Lesson: if something is out of whack using the AirVana, it is most likely the reason.

Love my Airrave!

Being a 12 year sprint customer and having lived in a state with great Sprint coverage and then moving to a state with — marginal coverage — we were ‘forced’ (no Sprint didn’t make us but it was the only option being in contract) to go with the Airwave to keep our service and make it useable in our new house.  We have had our airwave for two years, this included two different models.  The original without the 3G ability and the most recent version with the 3G ability.  Overall it has been a huge help in our house where signal was nonexistent (no bars).  It is not without its issues we have found.  Transferring from the Airwave to a cell tower(or vice-a-versa) as we leave our garage/driveway usually results in a dropped call.  Issues with texts are quite common – texts will not be sent even though they appear to have sent, or will just not receive.  Then suddenly when you get to a tower, the phone will send all your texts and several will receive.  Sprint customer service has always been pleasant and helpful but have been unable to fully resolved some of these issues.  The latest issue is that when I place a call to one of the sprint phones using the Airwave from a phone using a tower.  It will ring one time on the callers end – then go silent – but continue to ring on the receivers end.  If the caller waits long enough, the individual with either answer or it will go to voice mail.  It took a bit to figure this out as when I stopped hearing the ring I usually hung up thinking it was a dropped call.   Sprint currently have no answers for this but are investigating.  
Is the Airwave worth the monthly charge?  Well, if you must have Sprint service then it is your only option and will serve you well.  You will have clear phone service and solid 3G in a very local area.  If you are at a place where you can change providers, it may be a better option, considering the fees.  I would be willing to bet that if someone is a long time Sprint customer and in good standing and you are having issues, something could be worked out.   
That is my take – ymmv. 

I have used almost every major phone company.  With that knowledge, I would have to go against this device for most purposes.  As a consumer paying upwards of $200+ a month for cell phone service, I feel it goes back to the company to update the towers, not tap into my bandwidth and power to make their devices work.  I do understand people that live in areas that just don’t get service. Under these circumstances, the company should provide the device at no cost to the consumer to ensure quality service.  I have also seen where the service is limited to the phone itself.  I’ve had one phone get 2 bars, where another gets full signal.  To me, that just means the company should acquire better equipment.  I don’t intend this to start argument, as I would like to see another persons point of view.  But personally I see this as “Corporate America” slacking off, while trying to monetize a solution or even worse put it off on the consumer paying their checks.

I agree 100% with the sentiments expressed by Bill Shelton. I use ATT (a system too big to succeed?) and last August was suddenly without service in my home. I called ATT several times getting a different tale each time, boiling down to several towers in my area “degrading” and being repaired more or less one at a time. Apparently the closest one was last. But it then turned the story that mine wasn’t being repaired in the foreseeable future but I might (generously offered) try something called a “minicell.” This is pretty much the same as the Sprint Airave. You could say I was angry after 12 phone calls totalling about 12 hours of wasted time. I went to the ATT Store here and asked for this unit. They dusted it off and told me it would be 200$! Somehow, this did not calm me. I told them they should give it to me for free! The person waiting on me was actually nicer and more helpful than any of the ATT people had been, none of whom were impolite, but rather unknowledgable and unhelpful. To the phone once again, I called ATT from the store and argued for about 30 minutes and talked them down to 100$. They said they’d lose me as a customer before going lower! I am also paying them about $200 a month and I couldn’t quit because my 2 daughters are on my plan and, owing to variously timed upgrades, had contracts not up yet. So I paid the 100$ and went home to find that the “3G” written on the box actually meant that it won’t work for my old  2G phone! Approaching insanity at this point, I went back to the store and finally upgraded to an iPhone. Of course, I got an iPhone 3 with 8gigs for $20.                                                                                                                                         Yeah. I love my iPhone and the minicell works great. Has to be in my highspeed system and be “near a window.” Of course, when I step out to my car, I’m back to one bar until I get 3 blocks from my home!