T-Mobile will give you a home phone for $10, with unlimited calls. Too good to be true? Philip Berne has a full review of the new add-on service.
Review summary of the T-Mobile @Home:
 |
|
Gallery » |
 The T-Mobile @Home plan is a great idea and a fantastic deal, if you aren't already getting a better deal somewhere else. We didn't realize that would be the case for us, but as communications companies offer more and more complicated packages of internet, television and voice, even the dramatic savings that T-Mobile is offering isn't enough to offset, for us, the cost of losing out on our current deal. It's too bad, because @Home is not just a nice convergence of home networking kit, it's also an even better value in tandem with T-Mobile's HotSpot @Home service. Perhaps if T-Mobile could break up the cable monopolies by offering just one more piece of the pie, like a television service or internet access, or by partnering with another company to compete, then it would be worth it for us. But if the numbers crunch in your favor, by all means we recommend jumping in with both feet. You won't be disappointed by this cheap, easy service that sounds great. Release: June 2008. Price: $10.
Pros: Great sounding calls at an unbeatable price. Up to 2 lines. Plenty of features.
Cons: May not be a bargain for all. Router with phone jacks must be near internet modem.
| Poor |
Mediocre |
Good |
85%
VERY GOOD |
Excellent |
|
|
|
Full T-Mobile @Home Review:
|
It isn't difficult to explain T-Mobile @Home service. Basically, for an extra $10 on top of your T-Mobile cell phone bill, you can get a home phone with unlimited calling. Seriously, just $10 and you can have unlimited calling throughout the country. If that sounds too good to be true, there are some things you have to know about the service first, and some of these can get confusing, but the basic premise never changes. Instead of giving up your home phone for a cell phone, just add a home phone to your cell phone bill for $10.
The string attached
There is a string attached, and at the other end of that string is a router unlike any we've ever seen. It's a combination Wireless-G / VoIP router, which wouldn't be so unique, except that this one takes SIM cards. Up to two SIM cards, in fact, which means you can have two lines on your phone. Installation was a breeze. The router comes with an installation disk, but we skipped it and just plugged everything in in the prescribed order and it worked without incident the first time. We can't say that about any other piece of networking hardware in our office at the moment. Within minutes, we had a dial tone on our phone and an internet connection on our laptop.
The phone sounded great, too. Before we swapped routers, we were already using a VoIP setup with Optimum Voice, the standard package provided by Cablevision, our cable and internet provider in suburban New Jersey. In fact, the new T-Mobile router, a special Linksys box, sounded even better than our original line. T-Mobile says this is because the router knows to prioritize voice over data. To test this feature, we launched our friendly neighborhood bittorrent client and opened up the throttle all the way. The phone still sounded great on both ends of the call. Much better than a cell phone, this sounds like a real landline phone.
Too good to be true?
It's all be good news so far, so what's the catch? First of all, you must be a T-Mobile customer to use the T-Mobile @Home service and router. Customers of other networks (like this Apple iPhone-using editor) are left out of the game. That make sense for T-Mobile, and it's a marvel how many different options the network now offers to keep a phone bill in check. Besides the cell plan options and this new @Home service, T-Mobile also offers a HotSpot @Home service that works nicely with the new service. HotSpot @Home lets you place calls over a Wi-Fi network, and offers unlimited rates for calls that originate from a Wi-Fi hotspot. The Linksys router works just as well with the HotSpot @Home service as it does with the T-Mobile @Home.
The second catch concerns placement of the router. The Linksys box has to be connected via Ethernet to your cable or DSL modem. That also ties your phone lines to the same spot. So, if your cable modem is in your living room, that's where Linksys router needs to be, and that's where your phone line will originate. This isn't as bad as it seems. As one option, T-Mobile offers a set of cordless phones to get you started (though you can just as easily use your own phone). In our house, a friend with some technical expertise helped us connect our VoIP router directly to our home's wire lines, so now every existing phone jack in our house works with the T-Mobile @Home service. Problem solved.
For features, the T-Mobile @Home service has a nice mix of basic calling options. Voice mail comes standard, and works just like it does on your T-Mobile cell phone. You also get call waiting and caller ID, as well as easy call forwarding and conference calling options. In our tests, all of these were at least as easy to use with the T-Mobile @Home service as they were with our normal Optimum Voice line.
Is it really worth switching?
We definitely think the @Home service is worth considering if you're already a T-Mobile customer. Our situation, however, is a bit more complicated. Our current phone service, Optimum Voice, costs $30 per month, but that is because we are also subscribing to Optimum's digital cable and cable modem services. If you break up the "triple play," the price of the digital cable service skyrockets. Were we to choose T-Mobile @Home over Optimum voice, we'd save $20 per month on phone service, but our monthly cable television bill would jump as much as $20 to $40 per month. So, Optimum has us by the throat on this deal, but if the math works in your favor, we say go for it.
One last thing, but keep it on the DL
There is one final, cool trick we should mention. The Linksys router doesn't care if it's plugged in at your house, your office or the hotel where you are staying on business. So, theoretically you should be able to take it with you on a trip, plug it into the Internet and start making and taking calls as if you were at home. Unlimited calling on a landline phone from a hotel room is an unsung feature for this device, and if it works internationally, this might be a clever solution indeed (though we would read the fine print in the contract before attempting such a maneuver).
|
|
|
|
|
|
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
_pt00.jpg)
|
Archive