Sprint today announced the launch of its AIRAVE offering, a direct competitor to T-Mobile's HotSpot @ Home. The box, built by Samsung, will be first made available to customers in Denver and Indianapolis. Why Denver and Indianapolis? Who knows. The company says it'll have the rest of the nation covered by 2008.

What really makes this different is that it's a femtocell, not a Wi-Fi router - and so you can use any phone, not just a dual-mode one like T-Mobile @ Home requires.

The AIRAVE box costs $50, and the service costs $15 per month for individuals and $30 per month for families on top of the customer's regular wireless plan - but all calls at home are free. It's up to you to figure out whether that justifies the cost...

As the company describes it, "The Sprint AIRAVE is the first commercially available femtocell, a compact base station that works with any Sprint phone and a broadband Internet connection to provide enhanced in-home wireless coverage plus unlimited calling."

"With the AIRAVE, Sprint is delivering an enhanced in-home coverage solution that's simple to access, low in cost and compatible with any Sprint phone," says Sprint's Ajit Bhatia. "In addition, with unlimited in-home wireless calling, the AIRAVE makes it even more convenient for customers to rely on their Sprint phones at home."

More here from Gizmodo ... more here from the AP ... more here from RCR Wireless News ... more here from Switched ... more here from Digital Trends ... and the press release is here.