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T-Mobile Takes HotSpot@Home National

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price...

staiano

Jun 27, 2007, 8:15 AM
It's barely worth $10/month, never mind once the price goes up...

Good idea, bad implementation. As usual the customer gets screwed.
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lancekalzas

Jun 27, 2007, 9:18 AM
That depends on how you look at it. The idea is for this to replace the landline. You spend more than $20 a month on a landline so I don't think the intention is to screw the customer. Plus you're forgetting that T-Mobile still has to be able to make a profit off of this offering. It certainly won't be for everyone. It's mainly targeting those that don't have good coverage in their homes as this will give them an opportunity to do something about it.
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ralph_on_me

Jun 27, 2007, 11:19 AM
But you can only really replace the landline if you're using cable internet. If you have DSL, you still need a landline.

I don't think it's a bad idea. T-mo has a lot of hotspot agreements around the country. If it works at those as well as the home hub, then it'll be worth it.
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dustin.gery

Jun 27, 2007, 12:28 PM
It does...i think its well worth it.
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rmtp22

Jun 27, 2007, 1:10 PM
Not 100% true, DSL does not depend on voice service. You can purchase a naked DSL line (w/o voice). Just some companies won't give it to you. Most have it just don't sell it to you unless you ask.
Defiantly not ground breaking technology. Nor is T-Mobile going to have a stock split due to it. But it is , nice to see some new ideas from them.
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ralph_on_me

Jun 28, 2007, 11:44 AM
Most wont even sell if if you ask. I spent three months trying to force it out of Verizon, but they don't care.
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rmtp22

Jun 28, 2007, 11:56 AM
This is true. I think that you would have better luck with the smaller local carriers'.
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gameday7800

Jun 27, 2007, 9:55 AM
Unlimited free calling on Wi-Fi costs an extra $10 a month for a single line, or $20 for a family plan with up to five lines. Those are, however, promotional offers. The regular price for each plan is $10 higher. The company hasn't said how long the promotional offers will extend, but if you sign up at the lower price, you get to keep it. You can also use the service for free if you buy the WiFi phone, you don't have to sign up for the extra fee. All you would do is use any WiFi service you already have and just use your plan min.
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algorithmplus

Jun 27, 2007, 6:12 PM
If you can use the service for free purchasing the wifi phone, is there any kind of authentication over wifi to make phone calls other than the standard SIM authentication?
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gameday7800

Jun 29, 2007, 3:19 PM
The only thing you will need to enter is the network key if its being used on a locked network. If you are on an open network you just need to have the phone locate the network from the handset and then dial out.
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bnpballer

Jun 27, 2007, 10:36 AM
This is an excellent opportunity for customers with poor or no service at home, all they need is a high speed connection. Small Business customers can also take advantage of this. Saves hundreds of $$$ maybe.Ditch the landline. How is it barely worth it??? 😲
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staiano

Jun 27, 2007, 11:41 AM
Here are a few reasons it's barely worth it, to me anyway, [note: I was a beta tester on this service in NYC so I have already tried it]:

1) The service is no where near as good as they claim. You will see a problem with more dropped calls especially during handoffs each way. Since TMo is not the greatest with call dropping as is [been a TMo customer since it was voicestream] you will have/see more problems overall.
2) The phones SUCK. We had a Nokia when we tested and it was lacking so many features that current phones have as standard. The phones now do look better but just still not high quality. Just like with my favs it's TMo trying to make you buy another phone. Ideally this works on any phone with wi-fi after a software upda...
(continues)
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betty_bermuda

Jun 27, 2007, 12:23 PM
as far as the phones sucking RIM has a sexy blackberry coming out in september to take care of that.
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staiano

Jun 27, 2007, 1:23 PM
I look forward to that. Any idea on the model #?

Again I think the idea of cell calls over wi-fi is great, just think TMo is try to rob us customers with the individual price.
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V-Town

Jun 28, 2007, 12:44 PM
I think you have a misconception of how @home works. It is NOT VOIP, it uses the internet to connect to the main network AND nearby towers at the same time, that is hardly without a cost to a provider.

$10 a month is great
$20 a month for an entire family plan is amazing.

Perfect coverage at your home is the best.

T-Mobile is not Verizon, they dont make services to overcharge their customers with. Thats why minutes/features are all cheaper at T-Mobile than any other network.

However, I agree that the phones for @home suck right now, but that will change in time.
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algorithmplus

Jun 27, 2007, 6:16 PM
Do you know what the model of that BlackBerry is? I need a new phone, but I'll wait out my bad screen for a good model like that.
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lancekalzas

Jun 28, 2007, 10:11 AM
It's the Curve.
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bnpballer

Jun 27, 2007, 6:06 PM
actually the chips built into the UMA phones are different from other chipsets on WiFi phones so a simple software update will not work in this case. Check your facts before go spitting out falsities. 😡
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staiano

Jun 28, 2007, 11:01 AM
What facts did I spit out? I said, "Ideally this works on any phone with wi-fi after a software update or Java download."

If it can't be done via a software update then it's even more of a reason for TMo to get some better phones.
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algorithmplus

Jun 27, 2007, 6:15 PM
But, you can use the service on T-Mobile hotspots without paying for hotspot access, can you not?

Maybe they're preparing for a non-neutral net where they'll have to pay for you to make VoIP calls.
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supremecellgod

Jun 28, 2007, 6:00 PM
But he is complaining about "beta" testing this product, right? Maybe he doesn't realize that "beta" is an unfinished product usually in the preliminary stages of testing. There are bugs normally associated with "beta" products.
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staiano

Jun 28, 2007, 6:08 PM
You're right my experience with the service was a a beta tester when the service was in beta. I like the UMA service. I think it's GREAT, just overpriced.
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supremecellgod

Jun 28, 2007, 6:53 PM
$10 a month for unlimited service is cheap. The best thing about these plans compared to the myfavs is it sounds like it is a feature add on to any rate plan. Also you could lower your plan and add this feature which in the long run could save you money.
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denealio

Jul 1, 2007, 1:38 AM
I beta tested it too. I also think the phones were crap and that anything over $5-$8/month is not worth it.

Remember, you are helping T-Mobile by taking traffic off their network and giving them less need to improve coverage in your home.

Compared to my really crappy coverage at home, the hand-off from gsm to wifi were not that bad.

That said, UMA is a great idea and depending on how Sidekicks and Blackberry's are brought into the mix, I may sign up.
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rosco sweet

Jun 27, 2007, 2:02 PM
The thing is... consumers like to consolidate. Your regular home phone is upwards of $20 a month, especially if you don't have VoIP service. Even after the price goes up, its only $30 a month for up to five lines to use the service. And its unlimited service. AND if you don't need the extra minutes, don't pay for the feature. You can use the phone with any unlocked Wi-Fi service, or your own locked service, and you get the benefits of having a home access point with very little traffic. If you don't get the feature, it just uses your plan minutes like normal.

I think this service will catch on once more usable devices become available. Only two phones.. kind of lame. But you can't say its a rip when its not any more expensive than a landl...
(continues)
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rmtp22

Jun 27, 2007, 3:08 PM
Well put!
But tell how do you think this will work in such area's as hotel's, ect....? Will the voice packet have priority over data packets? Or is the VoIP not even using packet data?
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rosco sweet

Jun 27, 2007, 3:21 PM
The nice thing about the voice calls is that they take up roughly 70k of bandwidth for one call. T-Mobile HotSpots, at least most of them, are on a T1 connection. You would need to have quite a few callers on at the same time to eat that up.

Voice over data is going to depend on the router used. The routers that T-Mobile sells are programmed to give priority to voice calls over data transferred. I'm not sure if T-Mobile will change out existing routers at HotSpots to take advantage of this.
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