Following a
limited launch last year in its hometown of Seattle, T-Mobile's finally pulling all the stops and taking its "HotSpot @Home" hybrid GSM / WiFi calling service national. A first among the US' big four carriers, @Home relies on traditional cell airwaves out in the field but switches seamlessly to WiFi when it gets within range of a T-Mobile hotspot or any other wireless router you've configured your phone to latch onto. For the millions of us with less-than-stellar reception in our homes, the service could be a life-saver -- and even better, WiFi minutes aren't deducted from your plan. Launch handsets are the
Nokia 6086 and
Samsung t409, both of which will go out the door for $49.99 on contract and include a Linksys or D-Link router -- both specially designed for @Home service -- for free after rebate, though any 802.11b access point should work. The service itself will run $9.99 per month on individual and $19.99 on family plans for up to five handsets. Look for the equipment today in T-Mobile stores and on the carrier's website.
posted Jun 27th 2007 12:01AM
So it switches automatically? I guess thats the only difference between this and my T-Mobile data plan that includes unlimited manually switched HotSpot access?
no, your current t-mobile phone doesn't allow you to place unlimited voice calls over the wifi network...
What happened to the picture? It was of the Tmobile phone and Tmobile (Dlink) router and all of a sudden *POOF* its gone
Did the picture change, or am I just crazy?
Spyvie, you don't get it. This service routs voice calls through your Wi-fi connection instead of through T-Mobile's towers. It's seamless voice over IP. It has nothing to do with a data plan.
So if I have this right, I have to pay T-mobile another 10 bucks a month to get better reception in my home because they can't build a network that covers all the areas effectively?
LeeV, stop being pessimistic. You get unlimited WiFi minutes with the plan, WHEREVER you are.
This is actually a really big deal, and aimed at taking chomp at the iPhone, no less.
To get that, you need a VOIP service, which is being provided here.
Darn good deal, too.
*Cough*iPhone should have done this*cough*
The additional fee includes unlimited WiFi minutes so it's not a bad deal if you can use WiFi during peak hours. You can drop your VOIP line.
surely they'll make an update so my dash can do this as well.
....please?
Seconded
Third.
Ditto...they gotta support other, existing, wifi phones (like my dash...)
I spoke with T-Mobile Hotspot @ Home support and they said the Dash will not have the capibility because of the hardware requirements needed to switch between the WiFi and GSM network.
Wow! This is totally awesome. Now I can do away with my landline... if only my phone (that I JUST got.. KRZR K1) supported wifi..........
sweet! I currently use t-mobile pay as you go, and the only thing that is keeping me from dropping the landline phone connection is that cell signals do not work in my house. (copper siding) With this service I would not mind going to a plan.
@ Jeremy K.
Yeah, this essentially gets rid of the need for a landline. My AT&T family plan contract ends next May, and if this thing catches on, I might just make the switch to T-Mobile. This would be absolutely huge, especially for a constant cell user with extremely limited funds (read: me).
do the phones support WPA and WEP?
Oh and does this also mean you can use the wifi for data? like with the built in browser or something like opera mini?
Third that.
Third that.
Since it's all UMA and GSM i'm going to guess you probably will.
Will this work "wherever" I have wi-fi internet? Can I take my phone to London and talk for free from a wi-fi spot there, for instance?
It will work anywhere as long as there is no terms and conditions page. Also if someone has password producted their router you will have to have the security key for the phone to be able to conect
No it will not work internationally
What if i wanna use my OWN router?? I have a big house and I have a few repeaters in it. Do i HAVE to use a special t-mobile router? If not, sign me up...
No, you don't need any special T-Mobile router. Phone support both 802.11b/g with either WEP or WPA .
Any router (802.11b/g) will be able to be used as Access Point.
The benefit of using T-Mobile router is the T-Mobile has special software to save phone's battery lifetime.
Ok guys, here's the deal. The T-Mobile router allows you to have flawless reception and prioritizes phone calls over other connections. If you use your own router, it really won't work very well. However, the router is $50 with a $50 rebate. It works exactly the same as any other wireless router but also allows the added phone benefits. And really, are you going to argue with a free router?
As for data, this has absolutely nothing to do with it. Sure, you can access your internet wirelessly from your house, but this won't get you the hotspots access (that is still $19.99 monthly).
And this will work at any of the T-Mobile hot spot locations and anywhere with the hot spot router. That translates to Starbucks yes, Coffee Bean no. This also only works domestically and not abroad. At some point, T-Mobile UK and other European affiliates will launch something like this where we can potentially use the benefits, but for right now this is only for US calling.
And as for the Dash, I seriously doubt they will update it. It's going to be like MyFaves where they started off with just a few handsets and slowly integrated it into all the handsets. Rumors are that T-Mobile Curve and Pearl 2 will both be compatible with the UMA calling.
You best be wrong wit the dash , or it's an iPhone with no stereo for mwa :)
This feature isn’t all it's cracked up to be. I work for Cincinnati Bell and we rolled this product out June 1st with just the nokia 6086. The biggest draw back with the uma feature is that the phones cannot accept terms and conditions. So anywhere the wifi requires you to accept terms and conditions your phone won’t connect to the wifi network.
Also all the uma phones have three antennas (regular gsm, Bluetooth, and uma) and if you try to use Bluetooth with the uma turned on your battery will last about two hours.
Thirdly it's not as seamless of a transition as they claim when switching from wifi to gsm your drop the call about 25% of the time
I disagree about the battery. The way it is enabled, it will actually save battery life and allow the phone to have a much longer battery life than regular gsm. And the security key on the routers of course won't allow you to hop on to just any wifi network. This is mainly used for homes and small businesses that wants perfect reception and free calling.
I've personally used a 6086 while using the uma feature and it does drain the battery alot quicker than normal, just like using bluetooth drains the battery quicker, and if you use both at the same time the battery doesnt have a chance.
And if you're in your house, using Bluetooth, you could do something wacky like plug it in to the charger and still walk away as you are, after all, on a Bluetooth headset...
One potential problem with the uma phones is their 911 incapable when connected to wifi(while on uma you would be connected to the wrong 911 call center). When you dial 911 while on uma it will automatically switchback to GSM to make the call. The biggest problem i see with this is that their will be people who do not have GSM coverage in their homes and if they disconnect their landline and have an emergency they wont be able to use 911. (I work for Cincinnati Bell and thats how our uma feature works, so I assume T-Mobile's UMA will have the same problems)
You can’t just do a firmware update to make a phone uma enabled. The uma feature requires a separate antenna, so I doubt the dash will be uma enabled anytime soon since they would have to increase the phones size to get the third antenna to fit
The Dash already has a WiFi antenna built-in. It would work fine with a software upgrade.
Killer. Congrats TMO. Long time coming.
Can I have extra minutes if I share my router for another customer to use? Just think of carrier built in that principle - they will not have to pay anything for building the network, just for the outgoing calls ;)
oh man,
this technology is amazing!!!! i cant believe it will do a handover from tower to wifi back to tower seamlessly. i think sprint n verizon n att better come up with something quick!
Sprint is for the "stupid guy" that hasn't done his research to realize that Sprint is (and has been for a long time) the bottom of the barrel in both coverage and customer support.
This is going to be sick with my E61i!!!!!!!
I dont see any thing about this on the T-Mobile site anyone have a link I want it ASAP!!!
Thanks!!
T-Mobile site for @Home http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/
From a technical perspective, this seems really cool, but from a practical perspective, not so much. With free nights/weekends, rollover and free cingular to cingular, I have been physically incapable of exceeding my monthly minute allowance. Unless you talked constantly, the free usage doesn't seem like a huge benefit.
If it worked internationally that would be great. I currently use Skype or my corporate VoIP when I travel, but being able to fire up your regular old mobile and make/accept free calls while abroad would be amazing. I can't imagine why it's not technically possible; T-Mob's parent must not want to give up those $1.00+/min roaming fees.
Mine is in the mail. I should get it friday.
where would you prefer to enjoy your coffee? home? wifi there. work? wifi there, too. a bookstore? oh, wait, there's a t-mobile hotspot at all borders bookstores. what about a hotel? wifi there. the park? well, first of all, i wouldn't want to have coffee in the park while using my laptop, because the screen glare would probably be horrendous and, at least in the summer, it'd be uncomfortably hot. but if that's your thing, many cities now offer free wifi in some of their parks. and if your city doesn't offer this, you can probably hop on a nearby open wifi network.
wifi is NOT for stupid people.
wow cincinnati bell has had this for like 2 months now. works with ANY wireless network in cincinnati. plus it doesnt go against your minutes. great stuff. www.cincinnatibell.com
I just got the Hotspot@Home service and it works fine with the T-Mobile router, BUT wheever I try to connect to my wireless router at the office it gives me all kinds of dufferent errors. Am I missing something?
That is why T-Mobile adds in your current address and information and you will be routed to the closest 911 center to that information.
So, problem solved. No need for the landline.
Big Deal!!! Who cares about T-Mobile UMA wifi service. I currently use T-Mobile for cell phone service, and I personally don't see what all the fuss is about. So it will cost me $50 dollars to purchase the T-Mobile wifi router (oh I almost forgot about the $50 dollar rebate) I have never received a rebate back from T-Mobile after having 3 different rebates and all three were rejected. So bakc to my point, aside from the $50 dollar router, it will cost me an additional $10 dollars a month to make wifi calls. Wooohoooo!!! who cares? I get free nights and weekends with my current T-Mobile plan the reception works just fine inside my house. Why would any moron shell out the additional $10 a month just to make wifi calls. The wifi call's are not free by the way! If you are paying $10 dollars a month then how are the wifi calls free? Since I never purchase overpriced coffee at Starbuck's or go to Border's books and probably wouldn't bother making any phone calls from a bookstore where it's supposed to be quiet so that other people can read in peace, I fail to see what the big deal about this feature is. Just my 2 cents on it.
@ royalrepis
its a big deal to people who happen to be stuck in dead zones who cant' get any coverage at all. for me, i get zero coverage with verizon in my new place, so i'm switching to t-mobile and this may be a life saver for me.