First for everyone who hates cellular networks, lets put this into perspective: The new fancy technology that requires data such as the iPhone and what not, require high tech radio waves, also known as high frequency. While you can get SOME data over a lower frequency, the saturation rate is higher and the through put is lower. That said, most carriers have opted to use high AND low frequencies. But due to over regulation the lower bands are not available in all areas, thus coverage suffers. For those on Verizon, you get excellent voice coverage in more areas but data services drop off. AT&T uses higher frequencies in most areas thus the call drop rate is higher because higher frequencies dont penetrate objects as well, especially at a distance.
Also to play devils advocate for ALL cellular companies: We can NOT have our cake and eat it too. If you want better coverage write your local municipalities, counties and states to loosen up the regulations on cell towers. Democracy is great, and seemingly (ESPECIALLY IN CALIFORNIA) we do not want to see cell towers cause they are ugly. well, so is the quality of service. By regulating the piss out of them it costs tons to get a tower in, and in rural areas its not even worth it most of the time.
To move on to more technical details, the device is basically a small 30DMB transmiter that operates as a micro cell tower. This differs greatly from a repeater as there is 0 loss in the amplifier nor is there any SNR loss. This is why a single device at low power with no decent transmitting antenna can do 5000 sq ft. A repeater for those who have not used them are better than nothing but will some times notice dropping calls even with 3 bars or so, and quality will be low, and data speed slow.
This is not the case with this technology, as it is producing a new signal. (Always better)
The way it seems to function from what I can gather by screwing with one, is that it connects over the internet to a central server, and will create a single voice trunk of 4 lines. Its not technically voip as this is actually tiering to an ATT switch and handing off 4 lines from their cellular network (much more complicated than that, but you get the idea) This is why its able to roam between towers seamlessly because it is no different than any other cell tower. As to the cost of the unit, I believe it could go down some, but it is made by cisco and they tend to over price their stuff. 150 to me is reasonable, as you will not find ANY repeater capable of the same coverage area for that price.
Another note, you can pick this device up and take it with you. It works any where. I got one from my Cousin who lives in the Charlotte area, did the activation with his info and its working in the foothills of northern california with no issues. It does use GPS for the 911 aspect so I dont know if they'll release a patch to stop it at some point, but right now its fine. I also have no 3g coverage up here at all and marginal cell coverage in general at my house, but do have a 6mbit DSL. He has both DSL / phone at his place so it was just the 150 for him. Also for those with huge houses who already have a repeater on a "Long Shot" reach, get one of these and use the repeater off it. The signal into the repeater i perfect, thus is amplified much better than with only 4 - 8 DBM in. I use a wilson 65DMB for my office building on SUPER long shot that didnt work very well, tried this momentarily there and all of a sudden the DMB in went from 5 to 38 and the SNR was marvelous. Hopefully they'll make a commercial version of this.
One last word on people bitching about the cell network: Read a book on how this technology works, then gripe. While I understand that RF concepts and what not are beyond most people, you still all look ignorant to me when complaining, as if there is ANY carrier that doesnt suffer the same plight unless they are small po-dunk OLD school cell networks that cant even do 1x data properly.
My two cents (or perhaps a buck 50)
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