T-Mobile launches $10 home phone nationwide

June 24, 2008 (IDG News Service) T-Mobile USA Inc. will soon launch its $10 landline phone service across the U.S., the company planned to announce Wednesday.

Already available in Seattle and Dallas, the service will be offered to T-Mobile customers elsewhere starting July 2. The $10 monthly subscription includes unlimited local and long-distance calling as well as services, including voice mail, call forwarding and call waiting.

The service has a few drawbacks but should appeal to certain people, including existing voice-over-IP (VoIP) users looking for a better deal, said Charles Golvin, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "You can cut down on expenses because it beats Vonage by a significant amount," he said. Vonage currently has a $15 per month limited promotion, with its standard rate at $30 per month.

The offer is only available to existing T-Mobile customers who have mobile subscriptions costing $39.99 per month and up, and who have broadband in their homes. Users must also buy a router priced at $50 with a two-year contract, or $150 with a shorter contract. Users can keep their existing phone numbers and plug any phone into the router for the service, called T-Mobile@Home, which works like traditional home-phone service.

The back-end technology is similar to standard VoIP but not exactly the same. T-Mobile is using Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), which it has already deployed to support its HotSpot@Home offering.

UMA was designed so that mobile operators could use Wi-Fi to extend mobile coverage into the home. It sends calls over the Internet to the nearest node in a wireless network, and from there the call is transferred via the mobile operator's existing back-end network.

T-Mobile developed the landline service after launching HotSpot@Home, which requires users to have a special mobile phone that connects to the cellular network when they're outside and the Wi-Fi network at home. While some HotSpot@Home customers might decide to give up their home phones because of improved coverage in the house, the operator found that a certain segment of customers didn't want to for several specific reasons, said Britt Wehrman, director of product development at T-Mobile. T-Mobile@Home, which can be used in conjunction with HotSpot@Home, is designed to address that segment of the market.

One reason is that the size of a home phone can be better for long conversations than a mobile phone, he said. Another reason is that some families like to have a central phone number for the family. As an example, when Wehrman and his wife go out, they like to have a home phone number to call the babysitter on, he said.

Although subscribers can use any existing home phone, T-Mobile is selling cordless phones with preprogrammed features, such as a dedicated button to call voice mail and another for T-Mobile customer service.

Reprinted with permission from

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