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In my home I get horrible 3g speeds. So bad I have to use wifi. Where I work (outside) I get terrible service and bad 3g speeds. I called Sprint about this issue and was told that area has good (not great) but good coverage. They told me to bring the phone in to have it looked at. I know its not the phone because this was the same with my Hero. I just want to know what my options are. I honestly feel like they should put a discount on my bill or give me unlimited roaming. This is a very bad problem. I drop calls like its going out of style and 3g isnt even an option. As for 4g, nothing at all. This has been going on for a while and Im really getting fed up. Any ideas?
We are all in the same boat.
As soon as we get a radio update.
Pardon my ignorance because I'm not sure how it works or what hardware you need, but the Sprint Airave signal booster is supposed to work great. A friend of mine works at Sprint and was telling me that evidently it plugs into your wireless router??? and goes for around $100 bucks but he swears that he's getting full bars throughout his entire house including the basement. Might at least help while at home...
Technically we all have free roaming. We roam for free on Verizon's network so in theory, you should never drop a call if you have either Sprint or Verizon service where you are. I know it worked that way for me on the Evo 4G and once I turned off all the roaming guard crap on the 3vo, it seems about as good as my old Evo 4G. So have you gone into Settings, Wireless, Mobile Network, and turned off the roaming notification sound and made sure you turn OFF all roaming guards?
Edit: BTW my neighbor has the Airave and it does give him 4 to 5 bars throughout his single-level 2850 sq/ft house. No problem keeping a call over there!
Mike
i have the airave and it does work great, call sprint complain about the service and they should give you one for free
ubcwigwam said:
and goes for around $100 bucks
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This one? Its $50 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Airave/dp/B0035TLZ3O
Called Sprint about this and the guy said Sprint charges a $36 activation fee for this type of unit. Also supposedly it does use your minutes on your plan, and you can pay an additional $10 a month to get unlimited minutes while connected to the Airave
EVOLICIOUS said:
i have the airave and it does work great, call sprint complain about the service and they should give you one for free
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I've heard of a bunch of people getting free airaves for having poor signal at home. Is it true that it only works for voice, though, not 3g? I can make and receive calls ok, but the 3g and 4g signals at my house are awful. And they have been for over a year. They were bad on my OG Evo. I just would like to be able to surf the net on my phone. Or, even, tether occasionally, if we loose power to the main network. Thanks.
EniGmA1987 said:
This one? Its $50 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Sprint-Airave/dp/B0035TLZ3O
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i have had the airave since it was in existance. i was actually a tester for them before they went public. the one you linked it the old model 1X. the one you want is http://www.cnet.com/8301-17918_1-20014429-85.html
it is 3G capable. all and all a way better unit. if you call up explain your situation. for me what actually got me one many yrs ago was basically the truth. told them i am in a on cal field. i need my cell to ring when i am called no tgo to voicemail. if they could not provide me a way to fix it. i simply was going elsewhere. then i was offered to test a new device. ended up being the first airave. back then device was free and 4.99 a month which i was credited every month so was essentially free to me. now on the new one it is actually free per month 0 dollars. as long as you qualify.
its sprinnnnnt
Its definitely Sprint.. my company works with Sprint, and although they havn't said it was their problem, they are asking for all reports in our buildings of radio errors (network failure, data failure, can't make calls, text's come in with timestamp 4-5 minutes before the time they came in).
I personally thought it was the 3D, b/c I had a OG the day before and everything was fine, then I get to work and can't make calls with full signal. We have the sprint antanae's throughout our building, so something is up. It seems to only effect me at work though -- which is pleasantly located beneath the jet base flight path.
smarcin said:
I've heard of a bunch of people getting free airaves for having poor signal at home. Is it true that it only works for voice, though, not 3g? I can make and receive calls ok, but the 3g and 4g signals at my house are awful. And they have been for over a year. They were bad on my OG Evo. I just would like to be able to surf the net on my phone. Or, even, tether occasionally, if we loose power to the main network. Thanks.
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If you get the Airvana which is the second version of the Airave, you will get 3G as well. I've had it ever since I had my first EVO. I'm in a great coverage area but for some reason, I don't get any signal in my apartment or about a 1/2 block in either direction from my apartment.
The Airave works great. Whether or not you can get one free (normally $99 + $5 per month) depends on your situation and if you convince them its the right thing to do. I had to talk to 4 supervisors and a manager before they agreed to give it to me for free.
I got an Airave for free, just dialed 611 and talked to a rep, said I had to stand by a window or go outside to avoid dropping calls. Didn't have a problem getting one, the rep agreed that would solve the issue. Works wonders in the house.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
spencer88 said:
I got an Airave for free, just dialed 611 and talked to a rep, said I had to stand by a window or go outside to avoid dropping calls. Didn't have a problem getting one, the rep agreed that would solve the issue. Works wonders in the house.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
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Kinda sad that you need a airave or to go outside just to make a phone call. Did you tell sprint its 2011 ?
1. Yes there's a huge issue in terms of 3G speeds that have been going on since the Evo came out. There are more users on their network but they haven't expanded it. I took the issue so far that I was talking to people "From the Office of Dan Hesse" (Yes, I'm serious. I still have the voicemails and emails). It took them a while to go from "It might be your phone" to "OK, it's probably not your phone" to "The network in your area is crowded" to "Ok the network is overloaded everywhere". They promised me it would be fixed by May (this was going on since this past January). I used to get 1.5 Mbps 3G speeds and 15 (YES 15) Mbps 4G speeds, but now I'm lucky if I hit 500 Kbps on 3G and 4 Mbps on 4G.
And yes, they will send you an Airave. My internet bandwidth wasn't enough to support my Vonage VOIP modem and the Airave, so I put it aside. What they don't tell you is that if you don't use it for 3 months, you have to send it back or you owe them $200 (or $150, I forgot). You can always ask for it again later, but it's kind of grimy they don't tell you that. I got a surprise phone call about it. The good thing about the Airave is that after it's on your account, you can make it so that anyone can use it or you can limit it to certain phone numbers (like you and your family, for example). It does 5 calls at once tops. The BAD thing about it is that it will use your pool of minutes even if your calling a mobile number (free mobile to mobile doesn't apply).
And yes it does 3G. I HATE this about Sprint, but they're the cheapest carrier, which is why I put up with them. Also I just applied for a job with them; just waiting for the paperwork to go through on their end.
The alternative to the Airave is to download an app called Roam Control from the Market. Yeah it's like $4 but you don't need root to use it on the 3D. It lets you force roaming. But beware:
Sprint's roaming rule is this: If more than half the total minutes you use in a billing cycle are roaming minutes, for 3 months in a row, you'll get a warning letter in the mail. Do it again and they'll terminate you. Data I'm not sure, but being more expensive to them than voice, I'm gonna say don't go crazy. Also when you roam, even though it says 3G, you're on 1x.
I have thought about asking for an Airave, just havent gotten around to it. As for roaming, what people need to understand is that it really isnt free. When you roam mobile to mobile (which normally is free), eventually they start using your anytime minutes. When I had my Hero (rooted) I was able to set it to roam all the time, and I was on the phone a good 2 hours a day. Next thing I know, I had a $600 phone bill. I was told that if you use it excessively, they start to use your anytime minutes. I thought this was retarded since just about every call one makes, is to another mobile phone. I really just want them to give me unlimited roaming and Ill be set. Gonna give them a call eithher today or tomorrow and see what can be done. Airave will help me at home, but not on the road.
The Airave does have 3G but really, what's the point? It hooks to your internet router which probably has WiFi anyway so you might as well just connect via WiFi. We checked the 3G speeds on the Airave and got about 600/900. Connected to the same WiFi router, you get 17,000 and 2,000.
Mike
mikeyxda said:
Technically we all have free roaming. We roam for free on Verizon's network so in theory, you should never drop a call if you have either Sprint or Verizon service where you are. I know it worked that way for me on the Evo 4G and once I turned off all the roaming guard crap on the 3vo, it seems about as good as my old Evo 4G. So have you gone into Settings, Wireless, Mobile Network, and turned off the roaming notification sound and made sure you turn OFF all roaming guards?
Edit: BTW my neighbor has the Airave and it does give him 4 to 5 bars throughout his single-level 2850 sq/ft house. No problem keeping a call over there!
Mike
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Just a tid-bit about roaming. Yes, it's free to roam, but I sometimes get stuck between a rock and a hard place with signal where it picks up the most faint Sprint signal, which is so weak that nothing works, but enough to not roam to VZ's network. Not much you can do about that if that happens to you.
What I just got, but haven't spent much time with yet is RoamControl (paid app in market). It allows you to force roaming and works without root on the Evo 3D. Though, I do want to say word of warning that Sprint can drop you from their service all together if you abuse the roaming. Not sure what the rules are about it, but word of warning.
mikeyxda said:
Technically we all have free roaming. We roam for free on Verizon's network so in theory, you should never drop a call if you have either Sprint or Verizon service where you are. I know it worked that way for me on the Evo 4G and once I turned off all the roaming guard crap on the 3vo, it seems about as good as my old Evo 4G. So have you gone into Settings, Wireless, Mobile Network, and turned off the roaming notification sound and made sure you turn OFF all roaming guards?
Edit: BTW my neighbor has the Airave and it does give him 4 to 5 bars throughout his single-level 2850 sq/ft house. No problem keeping a call over there!
Mike
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What did you change in the settings? I've been looking to make the roaming popup go away, but I couldn't get it to go away on my OG Evo either...
ubcwigwam said:
Pardon my ignorance because I'm not sure how it works or what hardware you need, but the Sprint Airave signal booster is supposed to work great. A friend of mine works at Sprint and was telling me that evidently it plugs into your wireless router??? and goes for around $100 bucks but he swears that he's getting full bars throughout his entire house including the basement. Might at least help while at home...
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Click to collapse
The Airave broadcasts it's own CDMA signal, and connects to your internet connection to route calls. If you call Sprint and complain about coverage, they'll usually give you an Airave for free with free service. I've got one (Airvana w/3G), and it works excellent.
mikeyxda said:
BTW my neighbor has the Airave and it does give him 4 to 5 bars throughout his single-level 2850 sq/ft house. No problem keeping a call over there!
Mike
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no problem with brain cancer either i bet
Ryan00 said:
Kinda sad that you need a airave or to go outside just to make a phone call. Did you tell sprint its 2011 ?
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We get coverage in the house, but it's a low signal with the occasional dropped call. The airave assures that we don't have any dropped calls.
Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
new to androids and sprint so I searched the forums and found nothing related to my issue, so here goes.
I have a sprint air rave at my house and when i do internet speed tests whether it be through an app or a website i can manage barely 2mbps DL and sub 600k UL
When i turn wifi on i get my normal 10mbps DL and ~2mbps UL that i would get through my PC's...can someone tell me if its an airrave setting or is it just the way that the phone is set up to work with the air rave?
im Running Synergy rev 344 on my Evo 3d
This is because the airwaves uses Evdo while you use speedtest. If you turn off the airaves and perform a test again you're not using evdo you're using your home wifi.
You should be able to use wifi while the airraves on, just go into quick settings and turn off mobile network before you perform a speed test. Make sire to turn it back on when you're done!
sent from a double barreled shooter
thanks for the quick response! so i guess it was the way that the air rave is programmed (i had a inkling that that might have been the reason)
Preston2291 said:
I have a sprint air rave at my house and when i do internet speed tests whether it be through an app or a website i can manage barely 2mbps DL and sub 600k UL
When i turn wifi on i get my normal 10mbps DL and ~2mbps UL that i would get through my PC's...can someone tell me if its an airrave setting or is it just the way that the phone is set up to work with the air rave?
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tried google searching but i couldn't find any explicit stating of airave speeds.
wifi hardware on the evo 3d has the greatest speeds of all the radios on the device.
airave is using pure cell phone, 3g/evdo technology to communicate with the device which has bandwidth limitations.
to list the radios in the phone in order of speeds i've seen:
1) wifi, 2) wimax, 3) 3g/evdo/airave, 4) 1x
i also have an airave at home and i never thought to run a speed test on it. i usually flip on wifi if i need to pull down a lot of data while at home. mainly just use the airave for placing/receiving voice calls and sometimes text.
jlear3 said:
You should be able to use wifi while the airraves on, just go into quick settings and turn off mobile network before you perform a speed test. Make sire to turn it back on when you're done!
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turning on wifi with an airave and w/o works the same as with a cell tower signal and without.
when wifi is turned on android switches data to operate over the wifi radio and leaves voice/text over the cell radio which will go through either the airave or the sprint tower.
when wifi is turned off android switches data back to going over the cell radio which uses either the airave or the sprint tower, whichever has better signal.
hope that makes sense and helps!
No problem
Yeah the airave just gives you evdo speeds not wifi also be aware that it won't know if you're calling a mobile phone or a landline, so any minutes used to call will be deducted from your monthly minutes.
sent from a double barreled shooter
both of those are awesome pieces of advice!
yea i tried to google it also but couldnt find squat on the airrave speeds, lol i usually have wifi on at my house but i was curious to find out the throughput speeds of the airrave.
and also thanks for the info on the cell calls....when sprint sent it to me...they didnt say a word about the air rave not knowing if i was calling a cell or landline so i will definatly have to watch who i call from now on
Ya it really depends on what person you get from tech support. I don't know this from first hand experience only what i was told by a tech rep, mine won't be here for a few weeks as they're on backorder :/ so maybe the rep that told me was wrong, just pay attention until we know for sure
sent from a double barreled shooter
All,
I have a battery drain problem that only occurs in locations where I have poor signal, particularly the office building I work in every other week.
I believe my phone is constantly switching from 3G to HSPA+ to 2G and back.
Is there any way to boost the signal so it doesn't need to switch?
Or should I try to find a way to disable 3G/4G when I am at this particular location?
Or maybe there is something I have not thought of...
Suggestions?
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
BeenAndroidized said:
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
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I thought it was $200. Call them up and complain. I got 2 for free
Yep, my local cor store had a bunch of refurb microcells for 50 bucks. Works great for me.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using XDA App
For now my workaround is a wifi hotspot i am broadcasting from my laptop... but i have to be within 100 feet of my desk.
Warning: Created with Swype
I have only minor issues with my cell tower. Some time mms don't get sent out. Or takes about 5 sec to send out a call sometimes. My internet is a solid 12mb down and a 2mb up. So don't think its my internet.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium
3G and HSPA+ don't really change much since HSPA+ is only used with high data transfers that require the multiple 3G connections.
Can you upload a screenshot of your battery graph, stats, and CPUspy?
BeenAndroidized said:
The only way to boost the signal is to buy their (AT&T) socall signal booster (mini tower) that cost you $300.00USD.
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Not the only option - Bidirectional amps don't have the numerous compatibility problems microcells have, however they're more difficult to install. At the workplace, they would have to be installed by facilities management - but corporate firewalls will probably prevent microcells from working anyway.
Also, microcells are notorious for murdering battery.
nh5 said:
I thought it was $200. Call them up and complain. I got 2 for free
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The prices vary, I don't have one and not planning to buy one either..
Entropy512 said:
Not the only option - Bidirectional amps don't have the numerous compatibility problems microcells have, however they're more difficult to install. At the workplace, they would have to be installed by facilities management - but corporate firewalls will probably prevent microcells from working anyway.
Also, microcells are notorious for murdering battery.
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That is true, it is not the only option.
Unfortunately for me, I have the worst of both worlds, I live out in the country, so I have terrible internet and crappy cell coverage, so for users like me, its not really much of an option. I do know that I am a minority, but it still is frustrating.
joshh20 said:
Unfortunately for me, I have the worst of both worlds, I live out in the country, so I have terrible internet and crappy cell coverage, so for users like me, its not really much of an option. I do know that I am a minority, but it still is frustrating.
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A Wilson amp might be your solution then.
If network switching is something you still want to pursue, Try saving the following phone number to your contact list...
*#2263#
When you type it into the dialer, choose: GSM Band/GSM All. Menu/Back/Menu/End. Restarting the phone is not required. You can always switch it back by re-dialing the number and picking Automatic. Menu/End.
Verify the settings held by *#*#info#*#* Phone Information/Network Type. Should say: GPRS.
I live on the rural edge of 3/4G and the network switching was annoying and possibly not helping my battery life. I have 3/4G disabled most of the time because I don't have a data plan anyways (I use wifi for everything). Normal battery life with several hours of calls, wifi, email, browsing, etc. on the stock 2.3.4/HK7 is 2-3 days.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-i777 using XDA Premium
Signal Booster will help
Entropy512 said:
A Wilson amp might be your solution then.
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Click to collapse
Hi,
As mentioned by Entropy512, a signal booster may be a good solution for you.
Not only will it provide you with better signal but it will also help your phone save a lot of battery because it will only have to roam as far as the booster to get the signal source, compared to finding the closest cell tower.
For rural areas, if you are far from the cell tower, the installation of such a booster should be accompanied by an outdoors directional antenna pointed towards the cell tower and providing the highest signal gain inside your office.
Wilson boosters are among the most reliable ones, but you can also consider Cellphone-Mate or Wi-Ex, they may be a bit cheaper.
I used to have nasty 3G reception at my house and fixed it by getting a Wi-EX YX545 amp from the quantum-wireless website, they sell a bunch of boosters & antennas.
Hope this helps
If you just want to disable the connections rather than finding a way to boost the signal, try using Tasker. You can set it up so that when you reach your workplace, it will do what you want (disable data, enable airplane mode, etc). You can have the phone check for data periodically. As for voice calls, you can probably even set it to forward calls to your work phone.
As soon as you leave, the app will restore most of your settings (you probably would need to teach it how to stop forwarding calls).
been looking at these lately to boost my signal at home. I'm aware these incorporate data usage on top of mobile data plan such as downloading a 200mb file through 3g or 4g will also add same usage to your monthly with the ISP. luckily I'm just looking for better signal since I'm on wifi at home anyways while 3g or 4g is only on for mms which isn't often.
Do you get a decent signal outside your house? You can go with a booster if you do.
mjones73 said:
Do you get a decent signal outside your house? You can go with a booster if you do.
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kind of depending which room I'm in. if I'm upstairs and on side towards a tower I get 4-5 bars vs 2-3 everywhere else...sometimes one depending on Verizon's end
dyetheskin said:
kind of depending which room I'm in. if I'm upstairs and on side towards a tower I get 4-5 bars vs 2-3 everywhere else...sometimes one depending on Verizon's end
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I meant completely outside, they sell cell phone boosters where you mount an antenna outside of your house and feed it down to a booster in the house that repeats the signal inside. That method lets you help kill dead spots in the house and it still uses the towers vs your broadband connection.
As for the Verizon device, can't comment on it personally, I'm sure there are some reviews elsewhere in the forum. I don't think any data pulled over one of these would count against your Verizon data plan since it's coming over your broadband connection though, would be the equivalent of being on wifi.
Are you wanting to improve your voice connection or data connection? At a school I work at the Principal had a AT&T extender installed and it helps a lot with voice, but overall it was better to stay on wifi for the data connection.
Personally if it was me if your voice connection was good, I would just stick on Wifi for data if its not that great for 3G or 4G.
Lots of questions answered in this FAQ:
http://support.verizonwireless.com/faqs/Equipment/network_extender.html
I have one for voice and it works pretty well.
I keep it in my closet and it does the job, however there are some downsides.
It does not "extend" data, so I generally need to use WiFi in my house. I've heard the newer models will handle data as well; not sure if they handle 4G.
It does not hand-off to towers. This means you cannot initiate a call in your house then walk outside of the house; you'll drop the call. This applies for coming into your house as well.
This might be obvious, but it's reliant on how good your internet is. For example, while I was uploading my Google Music collection, I could not make calls using the extender because my connection was essentially tapped. I tried to set up QoS, but setting to low was the only thing that sort of worked.
I have one and Etherboo is correct. I'll add that they do not handle 4g. Doesn't matter because I use wifi at home.
That said, it works very well for voice. For some reason they need a GPS fix. Mine's in my basement office and I have to use the external GPS antenna that's provided.
Hello everyone,
I just recently received a sprint airave, free of charge. I don't necessarily need it...and the story of how why they sent it is a long one. Anyway, I usually get 25 up and 4-5 mps down with my ISP. I just moved and love the speed compared to my old ISP. I don't want to sacrifice any speed. So my question is, will the sprint airave reduce my downloads or uploads? Is there a certain way to install it to prevent any reduction in speed?
Thanks
No, it does not effect your speeds, even if it does, you wouldn't even notice it. I have an Airrave from sprint, but in my opinion it is not that great, sometimes it does not play well with HTC phones. Every once in a while you will have to tell sprint to reset it to work properly.
Hope that summary gave you the answer you were looking for.
Sent from my EVO using XDA
I set one up at our office at work. I think it works very well. Only problem I have with it I will set certain sprint #'s to access it but if I ever reset it some #'s I put in will just vanish off and I have to go in and redo it. I just recently set it to accept all phones cause I was sick of updating the listing. Also will have issues with hand-offs sometimes from the device to the tower it can dump the call.
They tell you to put the device in front of the modem so it is in charge of your network. That wasn't gonna happen with me, it works just fine behind a router I just have QOS enabled for it & some vonage boxes it works just find. I can't tell that it uses any bandwidth then again we have a 40/5 connection so there is plenty to go around. It will increase your 3G speeds a lot but I still use wi-fi. One of our guys has a pixie which doesn't have wi-fi so the repeater is great for that. As long as you have a decent connection your never gonna notice a difference.
Sim-X said:
I set one up at our office at work. I think it works very well. Only problem I have with it I will set certain sprint #'s to access it but if I ever reset it some #'s I put in will just vanish off and I have to go in and redo it. I just recently set it to accept all phones cause I was sick of updating the listing. Also will have issues with hand-offs sometimes from the device to the tower it can dump the call.
They tell you to put the device in front of the modem so it is in charge of your network. That wasn't gonna happen with me, it works just fine behind a router I just have QOS enabled for it & some vonage boxes it works just find. I can't tell that it uses any bandwidth then again we have a 40/5 connection so there is plenty to go around. It will increase your 3G speeds a lot but I still use wi-fi. One of our guys has a pixie which doesn't have wi-fi so the repeater is great for that. As long as you have a decent connection your never gonna notice a difference.
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If im remembering right, there are some pretty complicated issues with handoff between cell towers and femtocells (like the airave)
Sometimes you will have to dial "*99" in order to find out if you are the airave or tower. Hope you have better luck.
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