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T-Mobile Launches Home Phone Service For $10 A Month

Tricia Duryee
mocoNews.net
Wednesday, June 25, 2008; 4:00 PM



About a year ago, T-Mobile USA launched Hotspot@Home, a service that encourages people to drop their landline by allowing customers to roam on to Wi-Fi to get unlimited phone calls for $10 a month. Today, it is launching a follow-on product called T-Mobile @Home, which allows people to have a home phone using VoIP. Britt Wehrman, T-Mobile's director of product development, told me that they developed the product because some people were still reluctant to cut their landline. For instance, parents who are out at dinner may want to call the babysitter to check up on things, or a family member may want to know if anyone is home. In my own trials of the service, I found a need for it this morning as a person, who cut the cord and uses T-Mobile's hotspot@Home service. This morning, I had to call my email provider to walk me through a fix for my BlackBerry, and it had to be from a different phone. Release.

How it works: The landline-like service is a weird hybrid between a mobile phone and VoIP. Users must get a special Wi-Fi router that has a slot for a SIM card, and has jacks that phones can be plugged into. The SIM card is what allows the person to be assigned a phone number and authorized to use the T-Mobile network; however, the voice calls travel over the person's internet connection, like VoIP. What is a bit odd, but also gives you a comfortable and familiar feeling, is that the service acts much like a mobile phone. You can call 611 to contact customer service, and when you are setting up your voicemail box, it says things like, you'll have to enter your password when roaming (even though you have no plans to take your phone anywhere). You can also set up CallerTunes, also known as ringback tones, which play music while the person calling you waits for you to pick up. In my experience, the voice-quality was excellent and I found reasons to use it. In addition, the set up was fairly simple. I skipped installing any software on my computer, and instead unplugged my current router and plugged in the new one, and then connected a cordless phone to it. Calling within the U.S. is unlimited, but international calls will cost you a pretty penny with long-distance charges on par with a cellphone rather than a landline. Other features included are: call waiting, caller ID, three-way conferencing, voicemail, call forwarding, which make it seem like a cheap alternative to the landline company. The service costs $10 a month and $50 for the router with a two-year agreement.

Money-maker or retention play?: It's worth pointing out that this is a bit of a role reversal for T-Mobile, which is one of the only U.S. wireless carriers that isn't tied to a landline company. But it now appears that it is acknowledging that there is some value in having a landline-like service. Still, Wehrman said T-Mobile won't be making a lot of money on this service. "You have to be a T-Mobile customer to do it (single-line customers must have a $39 a month voice plan, and family plans must be $49 or higher). This is a value offering to our loyal customers, who can save $55 a month. In today's economic environment, it's a thank you to our customers and a way to inspire loyalty and trust and continue to wow them with the type of services T-Mobile offers." For the last few months, the home service was being tested in Dallas and Seattle, where T-Mobile said it found that 97 percent of the customers, who had a traditional landline phone service, ended up dropping the service after adopting T-Mobile @Home.

Update on HotSpot@Home: I took this opportunity to ask T-Mobile how successful its Wi-Fi service has been. Of course, they were reluctant to give details, but Wehrman told me that 45 percent of the people signing up for the Hotspot@Home service come from other carriers. In addition, T-Mobile continues strong support for it?today it has eight compatible handsets, and by the end of the year, they expect to have 12.

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T-Mobile Rolls Out Home Phone Plan

The service could replace traditional landlines as it offers unlimited calling for $10 a month to existing T-Mobile subscribers.


By Marin Perez, InformationWeek
June 26, 2008
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208801023



T-Mobile will be challenging cable providers, companies like Vonage, and traditional phone companies by offering an unlimited home phone service for $10 a month.

The company announced Wednesday T-Mobile @Home, a service that uses the customer's broadband connection to provide unlimited nationwide calling. The service will be available July 2, and is only available to customers with a T-Mobile subscription, which typically starts at $39.99 a month.

To use the new service, customers need to purchase a $50 wireless router from T-Mobile and sign a two-year service agreement. Users can plug any corded or wireless phone into the router, and then start calling.

In addition to unlimited long-distance domestic calls, users of the @Home service get call waiting, three-way calling, caller ID, and can port their existing number. Customers can also set up CallerTunes, also known as ringback tones.

The company had been testing the service in Dallas and Seattle earlier this year. According to a study done by the company, 97% of customers testing the @Home service dropped their traditional landline phones.

The price point could make this an attractive service, as competitors like Vonage routinely charge more than twice that amount for home phone service. But since this is only available to T-Mobile cell phone subscribers, the potential market may not be that large.

This is not T-Mobile's first foray into the home, as last year it released the HotSpot @Home service. This allowed customers to make calls that could switch back and forth between cellular and Wi-Fi networks.
FM

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