@Retired Guy - you hit the nail on the head. They're not generous from the bottom of their heart. They need folks to set up mini towers in poor reception areas.
I'm not real tech savvy, and half the terms that get used on the forums go right past me, but I was able to muddle through the info on these range extenders. If anyone wants to amplify on, or correct me, feel free, and no offense will be taken.
So here goes...
I don't think that the extenders are going to take a large amount of traffic off of the towers. It appears that any phone needs to initially be within 15 foot of the device to connect. After that, it only seems to have a range of maybe a 100 foot radius. And to top it off, the user can chose to limit access to it to only a selected list of authorized phones if they desire.
I suspect that in the confines of our 1600sf home, it will provide improved coverage, and maybe extend out to the end of our yard. But that would seem to be the extent of it.
Additionally, it's not stated flat out, but a call that is received from a tower will not roll over to the extender. But it does look like a call initiated on the extender will roll over to a tower.
And finally, the new version of the extender will flow data on 3G, but seeing as almost anyone using this setup will be using it in a home with a wireless router, it makes no sense to not switch over to WiFi for data when you are in your home anyhow, negating the benefit of the 3G capability.
About the only thing I am hoping for is that I won't keep missing calls, or having to go out on the porch to be able to understand a caller.
No benefit on data, due to already using Wifi.
No neighbors being able to piggyback off of our extender.
Like I said, I don't really see a measurable benefit to Verizon as far as reducing the tower load.
The new magic box should be here on Wednesday.
Once I struggle through the set-up, I'll post on any benefits or improvements.