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  1. #1
    David G. Imber
    Guest
    This is very compelling, not just because it can be a
    money-saver, and not just because it seems like a brilliant strategic
    move on T-Mobile's part, but because it goes a long way toward solving
    a serious problem for those of us who travel to Japan, and helps
    international travelers in general.

    http://tinyurl.com/322y7r

    DGI




    See More: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi




  2. #2
    Steve Sobol
    Guest

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    On 2007-07-06, David G Imber <[email protected]> wrote:
    > This is very compelling, not just because it can be a
    > money-saver, and not just because it seems like a brilliant strategic
    > move on T-Mobile's part, but because it goes a long way toward solving
    > a serious problem for those of us who travel to Japan, and helps
    > international travelers in general.


    Yeah, this is huge.

    I have my cordless and WiFi on 2.4 GHz and my T-Mobile cell phone on 1.9
    GHz. I have problems in the back of my house... not outside, get a signal
    fine there, not in front of the house, just the family room and (primarily)
    the master bedroom. And I'm supposed to receive pages on my call phone in
    the middle of the night if stuff goes down, which is less likely to happen
    with an unusable signal.

    Cool thing is, the parts of my house where the cell signal is weakest, are
    the parts where the wifi signal is strongest.



  3. #3
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    At 06 Jul 2007 05:06:48 +0000 Steve Sobol wrote:


    > Cool thing is, the parts of my house where the cell signal is weakest,

    are
    > the parts where the wifi signal is strongest.



    Which brings up an interesting point- you don't have to be on a "Hotspots
    @ Home" plan to use this service. You can simply buy one of the Wi-Fi
    phones and use it with your current plan. The only difference is the Wi-
    Fi calls aren't "free"- they're billed like any other cellular call (uses
    your minutes, free weekends, whatever.) For those seeing this more for
    it's coverage enhancing abilty than for free calling, NOT taking the $10-
    20/month add-on plan might be the preferable way to go.




    --
    Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com




  4. #4
    Tinman
    Guest

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    "Todd Allcock" wrote:
    >
    > For those seeing this more for
    > it's coverage enhancing abilty than for free calling, NOT taking the $10-
    > 20/month add-on plan might be the preferable way to go.


    Hey whatever helps this concept get legs is great. If it works as
    advertised, I love it.

    And like the article said if you use your phone with WiFi a lot you could
    possibly lower the calling plan, so that even with the HotSpot @Home fee you
    still are saving.

    I was also impressed that this system actually hands off in-progress calls
    from/to WiFi. That's pretty neat.

    Only downside is you can't use WLANs that use browser-based authentication
    (though I would imagine that wouldn't be hard to implement using the phone's
    browser).

    I'm hoping this concept catches on. A shame the iPhone doesn't have it.



    --
    Mike





  5. #5
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    At 06 Jul 2007 08:04:00 -0700 Tinman wrote:

    > And like the article said if you use your phone with WiFi a lot you
    > could possibly lower the calling plan, so that even with the
    > HotSpot @Home fee you still are saving.



    True, but I'm a "MyFaves" customer (free calls to/from 5 numbers) now,
    and leave 800 minutes/month "on the table" as it is! I don't need anymore
    "free" time even for $10!

    > I was also impressed that this system actually hands off in-progress

    calls
    > from/to WiFi. That's pretty neat.



    Yeah- apparently it's not VoIP- it uses a newer protocol (UMA?) so it's
    esentially "GSM over IP." Most beta testers were impressed with the
    quality.

    > Only downside is you can't use WLANs that use browser-based
    > authentication (though I would imagine that wouldn't be hard to
    > implement using the phone's browser).


    Seems like a glaring ommission, and is, unfortunately the deal-breaker
    for me at this time. I get good reception at home now, but would love
    this for hotel rooms with free Wi-Fi and lousy cell reception. Currently
    I use VoIP and conditional call forwarding for those scenarios, but would
    love the simplicity of @home instead.

    I might buy one of the Nokias just for the "gee-whiz" of it anyway.


    > I'm hoping this concept catches on. A shame the iPhone doesn't have it.


    It's a bigger shame T-Mo chose "iPhone week" to announce it. Heck, we
    could've been invaded by extra-terrestrials last week and it'd have been
    the number-two story on the news! ;-)




    --
    Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com




  6. #6

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    Does anybody know if Verizon Wireless (or any other carrier) is
    planning on doing the same kind of thing as T-mobile? (Hotspot @ Home)




  7. #7
    Todd Allcock
    Guest

    Re: T-Mobile integrates w/Wi-Fi

    At 15 Jul 2007 00:12:21 +0000 [email protected] wrote:
    > Does anybody know if Verizon Wireless (or any other carrier) is
    > planning on doing the same kind of thing as T-mobile? (Hotspot @ Home)


    Current indusrty speculation is no- Hotspot@Home is ostensibly designed
    to get you to ditch your home phone service in favor of free at home
    calling over Wi-Fi. Since AT&T & Verizon are owned by the two largest
    landline telcos, it's unlikely they'd introduce a service that drives
    their own customers away from their core business.

    In Sprint's case, I assume they intend to wait until they launch WiMax
    before going to a VoIP type of service.




    --
    Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com




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