Sprint, T-Mobile options for better cell reception at home on clarkhoward.com

Clark's new Sprint femtocell has really improved his cell reception at home. He and his wife are now getting 9 bars on their cells! The ads show 5 bars -- who knew you could have 9?!

Sprint's femtocell retails for around $100 and there's a monthly fee of $5 for the service.

It's similar in concept to T-Mobile's HotSpot @ Home, which Clark recently discussed on the show.

With the T-Mobile solution, you can ditch your landline, transfer it to T-Mobile and get home phone service via your cell with your pre-existing number.

Now let's take a closer look at prices. With Sprint, you have to pay an additional $10 for unlimited calling -- and that's just for one cell. So if you're a family with 2 cell phones, you could wind up paying $25/month ($5 monthly fee + $20 for 2 numbers) vs. $10 for unlimited calling from HotSpot @ Home.

In related news, Clark routinely trashes "add-a-cell" plans because of the danger they pose to your wallet. Watch out if you're a parent and you add a teen to your plan. Thankfully, both Verizon and T-Mobile now are setting up parental usage controls online. They can be used to prevent your teen from subscribing to costly 3rd party text messaging services.

What others are saying

Parental usage controls
att has been offering parental controls for a while now.
By Eddie Norris @ 08/27/08 07:36:50 AMreport abuse
I'll put it in if sprint pays me.
You are basically putting up a cell tower for your neighbors and yourself to use through your BB connection. Ahhh they pay churches with high steeples and tall building, put up fake trees around the countryside and property owners big money to do this. Now Sprint is expecting me to pay them up to $25 to do this to my own home. I live in a condo with over 62 households in my building alone that my wireless internet can reach. Improve their cell phone connection through my broadband and you want me to pay, come on Clark looks like a win win win for Sprint and nothing but a loss for me. My voip is $5 per month and I don't have to pimp out my bandwidth to the neighbors.
By JM @ 08/26/08 09:52:15 PMreport abuse
SPRINT SERVICE
just switched to sprint from Att . It drops more calls than they complete . We find it far inferior than Att
By ROBERT duquette @ 08/26/08 07:11:13 PMreport abuse
cell phone reception
do you know if AT & T will be offering any kind of program/equipment to boost signal strength for cell phones? I live in a aluminum sided house and I also have a film on the windows to block extreme sunlight/heat. As a result, I have poor reception inside and generally must open and sit by the door to make/receive calls. It's a problem in the winter time.
By Linda Lee @ 08/25/08 05:17:23 PMreport abuse

Parental usage controls

att has been offering parental controls for a while now.

By Eddie Norris @ 08/27/08 07:36:50 AMreport abuse

I'll put it in if sprint pays me.

You are basically putting up a cell tower for your neighbors and yourself to use through your BB connection. Ahhh they pay churches with high steeples and tall building, put up fake trees around the countryside and property owners big money to do this. Now Sprint is expecting me to pay them up to $25 to do this to my own home. I live in a condo with over 62 households in my building alone that my wireless internet can reach. Improve their cell phone connection through my broadband and you want me to pay, come on Clark looks like a win win win for Sprint and nothing but a loss for me. My voip is $5 per month and I don't have to pimp out my bandwidth to the neighbors.

By JM @ 08/26/08 09:52:15 PMreport abuse

SPRINT SERVICE

just switched to sprint from Att . It drops more calls than they complete . We find it far inferior than Att

By ROBERT duquette @ 08/26/08 07:11:13 PMreport abuse

cell phone reception

do you know if AT & T will be offering any kind of program/equipment to boost signal strength for cell phones? I live in a aluminum sided house and I also have a film on the windows to block extreme sunlight/heat. As a result, I have poor reception inside and generally must open and sit by the door to make/receive calls. It's a problem in the winter time.

By Linda Lee @ 08/25/08 05:17:23 PMreport abuse

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Aug 25, 2008 -- Sprint, T-Mobile options for better cell reception at home

What others are saying