DailyTech - T-Mobile Rolls Out $10 Unlimited Nationwide Home Phone Calls

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Gadgets T-Mobile Rolls Out $10 Unlimited Nationwide Home Phone Calls
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - June 25, 2008 12:10 PM

21 comment(s) - last by Suntan.. on Jun 26 at 1:50 PM

Service requires T-Mobile cellular account and special router purchase

T-Mobile has been testing a new service in Dallas and Seattle since February 2008 that is called T-Mobile @Home voice service. T-Mobile is now getting ready to launch the new service nationwide.

The service allows T-Mobile customers who subscribe to plans costing $39.99 or more for an individual and families with plans costing at least $49.99 to get unlimited voice calls in the home for an additional $10 per month.

Unlike the existing T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service, the T-Mobile @Home voice service has nothing to do with the user’s cellular phone. Users can keep their current home phone numbers and use their existing wireless home phone or corded home phone to get unlimited nationwide voice calls for $10 per month.

To get the service T-Mobile requires users to purchase a special router that can also provide WiFi access through the home. An existing broadband connection to the internet from a third-party provider is required as well.

The service is basically the same thing Vonage and other VOIP companies provide. T-Mobile requires customers to register their address at sign up to provide E911 service. However, just like other VOIP providers if the internet connection or power goes out, T-Mobile @Home voice service customers will lose home phone and E911 access.

T-Mobile says that it requires users of the home voice service to have T-Mobile cellular accounts to help offset this potential safety issue. The required router also supports the HotSpot @Home service and the router costs $49.99 to purchase.

The @Home voice service was offered to try and capture customers who wanted T-Mobile service, but didn’t want to lose their home phone service. News.com quotes Britt Wehrman, director of product development for T-Mobile, “The hot-spot service offers parents a good way to limit overage charges, because the kids can talk on their cell phones while they're at home without eating up minutes. But we found that many families didn't want to get rid of their traditional phones. They still wanted one phone in the house for the whole family.”

T-Mobile is going after new customers actively with new offerings and plans. It is also trying to make its cellular service more appealing to new customers. Recently T-Mobile cut its early termination fees to make leaving its service early less costly.

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:) $10 dollars for nothing

By Ananke on 6/25/2008 1:31:39 PM , Rating: 1

Hmm, this is a VOIP service, essentially what one can do with Skype. the differenece is that having Skype is free, or 2 cents per minute if calling to a phone number. So, if you talk more than 500 minutes to somebody natonwide and that person don't have anything else but land line phone, it makes some sense. I would say is radiculous, but less radiculous than other providers, who charge you for the same nonsense service $20 or more.

RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By Suntan on 6/25/2008 1:38:15 PM , Rating: 2

Why do you even need a home phone anymore? I personally haven't had a home phone for 3 or 4 years.

As the person would need broadband for the router anyway, they already have internet connection, so they don't need dial up access.

-Suntan

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By ksherman on 6/25/2008 1:44:58 PM , Rating: 3

Which really, what this sounds like is a way to have a home phone without having a home phone service. Add $10 a month to your cell bill and you can have a seperate home line.. thats what it sounds like to me anyway...

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By noxipoo on 6/25/2008 2:05:10 PM , Rating: 2

dsl needs a home line and it's cheaper than a dry line at this point.

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By Golgatha on 6/26/2008 9:48:32 AM , Rating: 2

I use AT&T U-Verse, which doesn't require a land line. I also use Skype for all our phone call needs. Skype runs $60/year for a phone number others can call us on (Skype In), and $3/month for unlimited long distance to US/Canada/Mexico/US Territories.

The T-Mobile service is very cost comparable at $10/month and more so for me because I'm already a T-Mobile customer. Also, Skype doesn't support E911 service. The only kicker for me is that we have a basic 300 minute plan and I don't feel like raising our cell phone bill just to take advantage of this $10 offer. For me it would be an additional $20/month that I just don't feel like paying.

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By oab on 6/25/2008 3:32:23 PM , Rating: 3

quote:
Why do you even need a home phone anymore?

911 service.

In the event you can't speak, they know where your house/apartment is, and it has a 99.999% uptime. Your cell-phone or internet connection do not have that.

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By ebakke on 6/25/2008 3:39:32 PM , Rating: 4

I'll risk it.

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By Klober on 6/26/2008 1:45:45 PM , Rating: 2

While you may need a "home phone" for 911 calls, you do not need home phone service. All you have to do is plug a phone into your wall telephone outlet and dial 911, no service necessary, to reach 911 for help. So, yeah, I'll stick with just my cell phone.

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By Suntan on 6/26/2008 1:50:35 PM , Rating: 2

Not at all. My cell phone has E911. If I'm at home, its at home.

-Suntan

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RE: :) $10 dollars for nothing

By garyetie on 6/25/2008 2:35:17 PM , Rating: 2

I use the Hot Spot@ Home service for two cell phones offered by T-mobile, and the system that they have employed works great. Very few hiccups, and it completely ended overtime minutes charges on our 1000 minute Family Plan.

Although I haven't verified it yet, as far as the home phone is concerned, T-mobile does not employ VOIP for the Hot Spot@ Home service.

The following site offers the explanation quoted below:

http://www.voip-weblog.com/50226711/is_the_linksys...

"The HotSpot @Home service allows you to make calls over WiFi using a dual-mode handset. The technology T-Mobile is using is called Unlicensed Mobile Access, or UMA. UMA takes the protocol used by GSM handsets and encapsulates it into an IPSec VPN for transmission over the public Internet. The VPN is authenticated using the subscriber's SIM card via a protocol called EAP-SIM."

I'll look for a definitive answer on the home phone service and post a follow up as soon as I find out.

The trouble with signing up for the T-mobile home phone service is, even though I'm eligible, as a Hot Spot@ Home customer, I have a typical Phone/Internet/Cable package from one of the local cable companies, and the cost differences, going to only an Internet/Cable package, and adding the T-mobile home phone service would be negligible, unless I'm missing something.

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I have this feature on a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

By davidhaile on 6/25/2008 2:11:10 PM , Rating: 2

It works except for one thing - I think it lost the WiFi connection in one long phonecall and counted non-free minutes instead. I don't know how to correct that problem once I made a call that should have been over WiFi.

You don't necessarily need the T-Mobile HotSpot Router either. It will connect to any WEP or non-secure WiFi connection. You have to enter the encryption key.

RE: I have this feature on a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

By ksherman on 6/25/2008 2:17:24 PM , Rating: 2

That is odd, it is supposed to bill any call originating over the WiFi as a WiFi call (free) even if you leave home and switch to the GSM networks... Maybe that was just too good to be true :/

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RE: I have this feature on a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

By ninjit on 6/25/2008 2:34:01 PM , Rating: 2

That's only true if you spend the extra $10 /month for unlimited Hotspot@Home service.

You can by a UMA compatible phone and still use WiFi to improve your reception, but it's still treated like regular phone calls.

I finally convinced one of my friends to upgrade to Hotspot@Home, and she loves it. She had zero reception at home and at her office, and being a girl, was always going over her monthly minutes (with bills reaching over $100 monthly).

Now with a UMA phone and the Unlimited hotspot@home service, she gets clear calls at both places, and can talk as much as she wants for $65/month.

I'm considering switching to T-mobile just for this, because one of the biggest pluses is that the UMA WiFi handover even works abroad - so I could be in France or India with my cellphone, connect to a local WiFi point and then be able to make and receive calls just like I was back here in the US.

I'm actually a bit surprised that Hotspot@Home hasn't been in the news more, as it's considerably more signficant then this pidly T-mobile@Home service - and I bet there's going to be a lot of confusion between the two as well.

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RE: I have this feature on a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

By ebakke on 6/25/2008 3:41:10 PM , Rating: 2

You're talking about their HotSpot @Home, which isn't what this article is talking about. Read the first paragraph again.

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RE: I have this feature on a new T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve

By ebakke on 6/25/2008 3:41:42 PM , Rating: 2

*third paragraph

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Right...

By pauldovi on 6/25/2008 1:06:43 PM , Rating: 2

quote:
T-Mobile says that it requires users of the home voice service to have T-Mobile cellular accounts to help offset this potential safety issue.

I am sure that is what they were thinking!

RE: Right...

By G2cool on 6/25/2008 3:08:41 PM , Rating: 2

I agree. Does anyone recall Vonage ever requiring a cell phone for safety?

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RE: Right...

By tmouse on 6/25/2008 3:34:27 PM , Rating: 2

Thats because without internet service you are S@#T out of luck as far a 911 goes with VOnage or ANY VOIP service. This is why it is never good to put all of your eggs in a single basket.

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It works well

By CleverWittyName on 6/25/2008 2:44:20 PM , Rating: 3

I am not sure where the article got its facts from but I think the rollout dates are a bit incorrect as well as a few details.

I have been using the TMobile@home service (in the Sacramento area) for about four months now (since February 2008?) and I can't say enough positive things about it!

I got the service because my mobile coverage in my house is limited. However, it is not difficult for me to expand my 802.11 g capability within my house! I have done so and now can use my mobile at home...

What is not true from the article:

You don't have to use a T-mobile router. They do offer two routers, one a Linksys and one a Netgear. I even bought the Linksys because it was free after rebate. I gave it to a buddy in lieu of using the Cisco network that I have already established in my house. I did have some network issues and did use a different Linksys router (not the T-mobile one) without any difficulties. I also used it perfectly well at my brother's house with his SMC router.

The advantage of the T-mobile router is that it was automatically configured to work. I gave it to a friend, and now I automatically connect whenever I go to his house.

The service can be accessed through any wireless cloud. There is limited browsing ability with the phone so I cannot connect using wireless networks at hotels when I travel, however, I can use it at Starbuck's Hotspots without any difficulty.

I was unclear about the using my home number as discussed in the article, but it isn't really pertinent.

Needless to say, it made it so that I can use my wireless phone at home now when I didn't have signal before.

-c

BTW, no, I don't work for T-mobile or even in the industry. I am a State worker and closet computer geek.

RE: It works well

By joex444 on 6/25/2008 6:10:55 PM , Rating: 2

"Unlike the existing T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service, the T-Mobile @Home voice service has nothing to do with the user’s cellular phone. "

It sounds like you are describing HotSpot@Home.

I can't say enough bad things about HotSpot@Home to fully explain to others what the service really is. POS makes it sound like it came from the hand of god to save humanity. It's much much worse than a POS. I would have loved if it was a POS.

That god damn Linksys router they give you is the worst pile of garbage I've ever seen in my life. I have a 6Mbps comcast, and as soon as you try to download anything through that router it will drop the comcast connection and you have to hard reset the router. This is exactly like my old Netgear RP614 router used to do -- have to reset it 3 times a day.

So, instead, I have built a ClarkConnect linux based router off some old Tualatin Celeron parts and a compact flash HD. It's been up and running since Sept '07, never reset, never dropped a connected, and unlike the Linxsys POS, it actually works with the "SpeedBoost" thing and I routinely start downloads at >2MBps (16Mbps; up to about 24Mbps). Now I kept that POS Linksys router, added on a third NIC to the ClarkConnect, created a 2nd subnet to keep the wireless away from my wired PCs. It works fine there, for whatever reason. But even then, since its a router and not a WAP, I can't access it from the wired side since it blocks "external" traffic. Whereas my Netgear WAP which extends the Linksys coverage in my house allows external traffic, and I could configure that from a 2nd subnet. This isn't a big deal, because we all know that 802.11g gets you about 20Mbps bandwidth over a LAN. That's why my wired side is 1Gbps, and I have pulled down more than 100MB/s through that, thanks to my use of RAID5 arrays.

Basically, T-Mobile sucks hard donkey balls. What do expect with the Germans owning US cell towers? Upgrades, maintenance, quality personnel? Hah! Can't wait until my 2 year contract is up.

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Naming Confusion?

By homebredcorgi on 6/25/2008 3:04:17 PM , Rating: 2

To clear things up here, there are two separate programs:

T-Mobile Hotspot@Home uses a cell phone that has built in wifi capability (UMA) and allows the phone to make and receive calls on a wi-fi connection. For $10/month, all calls made through the wifi connection are free. If you start a call on wifi and then transfer to GSM it is still free. If you have a UMA capable phone, you can still place calls over wifi without getting the $10/month package, but the calls use your regular bucket of minutes. This program is great for anyone who routinely goes to places that offer no cellular service. Note that the phones generally use more battery power when on wi-fi than when using a regular GSM connection.

I believe this service has already been rolled out nationally.

T-Mobile@Home is a replacement for your home phone (land line). The key (if I recall) here is that it lets you keep your original home phone number. Many people still have land lines (which typically cost around $25/month) that see little use. This costs $10/month. Most don't want to dump their land line because they are afraid of losing their home number which they have had for x years.

This service was in testing in Seattle and Houston and is being rolled out nationally today. This is what the article was talking about, but because of the similar concepts and naming, it seems to have gotten confused with hotspot@home.