I took a serious double take when I read this little bit of news on Engadget mobile a few days back. I did not realize the full ramifications of the article until later. I know many users who wanted T-Mobile Hotspot@Home were annoyed when the price went up from $9.99 a month to $19.99 a month for new subscribers. Well it seems like T-Mobile has decided to up the ante further with some serious changes in the future by entering the VOIP market full force.
The new service will be called Hotspot@Home Talk Forever and is being trialled in Seattle and Dallas this month. Their big selling point is that they will be cheaper than Vonage.
You will have to use a completely new VOIP and the old Linksys Hotspot@home routers will not work with this service. You can port your number and have all of the regular features of a T-Mobile cellphone such as voicemail, callertunes, caller ID, and others. All of this is included in your one monthly bill from T-Mobile.
Confused yet…
These new routers will have two landline jacks and 2 SIM card slots so you can have up to two different landline numbers through VOIP. I still can’t understand the reason for the SIM cards if it is VOIP service but maybe they are using UMA which might require them? The details continue on and on and managed to completely confuse me. This may be something T-Mobile users would want to keep an eye on.
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: February 6, 2008 at 3:13 PM EST
I just called T-Mo to ask about this, since I’m in the Dallas area. The Rep (Sarah) knew about the Hotspot@Home Talk Forever change from the traditional Hotspot@Home, but didn’t know anything about VOIP home phone part. She said it was just a price change down to $9.99/month for @Home. She didn’t know of any new router other then the current two (linksys and D-link). I specifically told her it was also for VOIP home phones, and she read to me what she had, and it only mentioned WiFi for UMA. What’s going on here?
BTW she was super nice and back dated my update to HotSpot@Home Talk Forever for the whole billing cycle, so for all of Februrary I’ll pay $10 rather than $20 for my family HotSpot@Home. Not bad.
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: February 6, 2008 at 3:24 PM EST
Ok WFT!!! I just called T-Mo sales department, and they didn’t know anything about this either. Does this even exist if T-Mo doesn’t know anything about it?
Nikolaus Not Registered
Posted: February 6, 2008 at 5:34 PM EST
That wonderful T-Mo rep actually did some digging at T-Mo and found out they won’t get trained on it until closer to the Feb. 14th release date. She also told me it will likely be similar in price to the $9.99 add a line fee, so that sounds pretty good. HOWEVER unlike VONAGE, VIATALK, and the good’ol departed SunRocket, it will not offer free long-distance to Canada, which I actually use a lot. Doubt I’ll use this then. Come on T-Mo!! You want to compete with the other VoIP carriers then you got to offer the same scope of calling coverage!!