Well, goodness, try saying
that five times fast. T-Mobile has officially unveiled its rather longwinded "HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Home Phone" plan add-on for folks that aren't quite ready to put their landlines out to pasture quite yet, though there's a catch: much like the
original, it's beginning life as a trial in just a couple of test markets. Lucky folks in Seattle and Dallas will be able to march into their local T-Mobile outlet and pick up the
long-rumored WRTU54G for $49.99 on contract, at which point $10 a month tacked onto their T-Mobile bill will allow them to jack in their old-school landline phones and get unlimited domestic calling. In the event they need a landline phone (o rly?) or are looking to upgrade their 70's vintage AT&T Slimline, stores will also be offering this lovely
DECT system from VTech to complete the package. There's no word just yet on when we might see the hardware outside the test markets, but with landline popularity waning the way it is, we'd suggest they get a move on.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RC @ Feb 23rd 2008 10:49PM
Not really sure what strategy T-Mo has here, most people these days are ditching their landlines, not connecting new ones.
Gib @ Feb 24th 2008 4:17PM
Yeah i'm not real sure the strategy here either. true there are alot of home phones but they are decreasing....who knows.
Joe @ Feb 25th 2008 9:50AM
I don't know it is nice to have seperate lines for home and cell phones. Lets be honest my DOCTOR has to call me to remind me about an appointment between normal business hours, but I sure the heck don't want to pay for it, so a home phone is a nice place to get the message sent for free.
hushpookcentral @ Feb 26th 2008 7:49PM
Its not like 85% of households have dumped their home phones in favor of cell phones. Actually, its about 15%. The average home phone user isn't an ubergeek who gets on a techno message board. The cost of the setup is less than half per month what a traditional VoIP is, and the customer already would be getting a T-Mobile bill. This program has a chance to be an attractive add on.
timbo @ Feb 28th 2008 4:50AM
We got online with it last week (we are in the Seattle area).
It works as promised. We had Vonage before that. It has one limitation though: you can't fax or send data over it. You can do those with Vonage.
They do mention this on their FAQ page.
As a result, we are no longer able to do TiVo updates. Other than that, it's great.
Stormy @ Apr 10th 2008 6:42PM
The thought process behind the move is to up customer support and to help people move from expensive traditional landline phones to tmobiles 10 a month service. Not everyone lives in an area where there cell gets service. take big citys and huge appartment buildings. signal is not always so great or not happening at all. for those people that can still get high speed internet but noot cell signal suffer and pay 30 to 80 month for a home phone too. its also great for the kids to have around with no worries on minutes. and for businesses that are in remote locvations but have internet.... well possibilities are endless. any questions just shoot me a message.