T-Mobile goes national with HotSpot @Home WiFi calling

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 27th 2007 at 12:01AM

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.

Filed under: Handsets, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE

Tags: 6086, breaking news, BreakingNews, hotspot, linksys, nokia, samsung, t-mobile, t409, uma, wifi

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

rosewood @ Jun 27th 2007 2:01AM

I don't like that I have to pay for the privilege of not using up their network.

However, if the Wing and the Dash become UMA capable, I may cut my plan and go with this anyways.

Neutral

Brian @ Jun 27th 2007 11:39AM

it is completely free if you just want to use your own minutes when on the wifi network. This will only work with UMA phones, not any older ones

Highly Ranked

Badonkadonk @ Jun 27th 2007 9:07AM

"Any 802.11b AP should work" is technically true but terribly misleading - if you want to have decent power usage on these phones you will want to use the TMo AP, or at least be able to support uAPSD / set your DTIM interval etc to reasonable rates such that your WLAN radio isn't on all the time with your current AP - setting useful QoS and/or traffic shaping on your AP is also going to be needed to ensure reasonable voice quality on the WLAN link. If that last sentence has you wondering "WTF?", then you really want to just get the AP from TMo and plug it in.

Neutral

Chris @ Jun 27th 2007 9:36AM

WTF?

Neutral

Brian @ Jun 27th 2007 11:39AM

he is saying that any router will work, but there are many benefits to use one of the 2 routers that t-mobile is offering. There router will save power, and has a auto connect function that makes it real easy for first connect

Neutral

vancemason @ Sep 12th 2007 1:30PM

I am currently using it with the Actiontec wifi router from Qwest. Quality is not great. Do I need any software from T-mobile to tell my router how to work better? The phone sees the router wifi signal just fine.

-Vance in Denver

Neutral

Matt @ Jun 27th 2007 12:38AM

Any word on future compatibility with the Wing or other Wi-Fi-equipped smartphone handsets?

It'd be sweet!

Neutral

Brian @ Jun 27th 2007 11:39AM

it will only work on a UMA handset. SO no luck on older phones

Neutral

frank @ Jun 27th 2007 1:52AM

Once again, clarification on the minute plans: contrary to the misleading information above, WiFi minutes are just like regular minutes UNLESS you add the $20/month unlimited WiFi calling plan.

Neutral

Brian @ Jun 27th 2007 11:39AM

it is only going to be $10 a month for individual as a promotion for the first month or so

Neutral

R. Garrett Hanzel @ Jun 28th 2007 6:26PM

Wing going UMA? That's the only news I want to hear.

DON'T like the fact that customers are paying to NOT use Tmo's network, but hey, at the moment they're the monopoly on this service, so a $10 add on isn't bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlicensed_Mobile_Access

Neutral

CParish @ Jul 2nd 2007 2:45AM

The Wing and all WM6 devices for that matter have the software support for a UMA client, but I suppose that is up to TMo to choose to support it or not

Neutral

JJ @ Jul 30th 2007 4:50AM

I works only in the USA? I live in Poland and I'm thinking to get this Nokia 6086 to make these WI-FI calls to save some money but I'm not familiar with technology at all. I have a wi-fi linksys router at home so if I'm gonna get a phone like this I will be able to make calls for free like on skype? or unless some of our gsm providers not gonna have Add-On to the plan I won't be able to do it?

Neutral

JJ @ Jul 30th 2007 4:53AM

It should be: "It works only in the USA?" :)

Neutral

joblolboj @ Aug 5th 2007 6:00PM

It works worldwide! We purchased two of these and added the family plan. My wife lives in Beijing, China and I live in the US. We have been calling each other with absolutely NO problem. When you are on Wi-Fi, the phone does not sem to know or care where you are in the world.

Neutral

vancemason @ Sep 12th 2007 1:28PM

I am using it currently with my Qwest Actiontec wifi router. Do I need any special software for my router? Quality so far is not great.

--Vance In Denver

Highly Ranked

astevens @ Oct 11th 2007 6:42PM

It is the UMA Peering causing delay likely if you are with Qwest. The UMA IP's are all Sprint and on a single net-block.

System should have been tested longer and they should have rolled out tower updates that are needed in most areas for UMA/GSM to handoff. Our location has been 'scheduled for enhancements within 120 days' for almost 2 years so don't let them fool you with promises of such.

Escalate it, but be careful, or you will be threatened by t-mobile managers like I was ( http://tmobile.gravitypark.com for an audio of it), hehe. Come get me t-mobile, and bring a tech to fix my phone when you pay me this visit.

Neutral

vancemason @ Sep 12th 2007 2:57PM

Does anyone else get a half-second delay when talking on their t-mobile hotspot at home? It is pretty annoying. We have Qwest DSL 256kb and none of our computers are on the broadband when it happens.

Highly Ranked

astevens @ Oct 11th 2007 6:38PM

UMA is very buggy at best. UMA to GSM transfers simply do not work.

Your T-Mobile is fully dependant on a single SPRINT IP address and if that address can not be reached, your UMA is a no go.

Have had the service since July, still busted off. Aside from David Pogue (who hates the ihone) at NYTimes, everyone else has some kind of UMA issue and can not go from UMA to GSM as stated.

Will be a killer app if they get it working, however I am no longer believing they will.

Took 2 days of telling them the trunking system was down in order to get it fixed, lovely support.

http://tmobile.gravitypark.com for a list of my issues and a real audio encoding of a tmobile manager reminding me he has my home address. Such class from a provider. Stick with skype for now, maybe someone else will deliver what t-mobile has promised.

Neutral

vancemason @ Oct 12th 2007 10:31AM

The wifi phone from T-mobile is suddenly working much better. Excellent, in fact. Perhaps T-mobile finally upgraded our tower. I am now a happy customer.

New question - if I buy another wifi phone on ebay to replace my wife's non-wifi T-mobile phone, will I have any problems just swapping the SIM chip and going to town? If I buy the phone from T-mobile I have to extend my contract 2 years - not going to happpen.
--Vance in Denver

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