nice. Another excuse for T-Mobile to not upgrade to 3G. On 8/3/07, Paul Blumstein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > http://tinyurl.com/2vomov > > The New York Times > > July 5, 2007 > IPhone-Free Cellphone News > By DAVID POGUE > > Man, oh man. How'd you like to have been a PR person making a > cellphone announcement last week, just as the iPhone storm struck? > You'd have had all the impact of a gnat in a hurricane. > > But hard to believe though it may be, T-Mobile did make an > announcement last week. And even harder to believe, its new product > may be as game-changing as Apple's. > > It's called T-Mobile HotSpot @Home, and it's absolutely ingenious. It > could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars a year, and yet > enrich T-Mobile at the same time. In the cellphone world, win-win > plays like that are extremely rare. > > Here's the basic idea. If you're willing to pay $10 a month on top of > a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When > you're out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up > your monthly minutes as usual. > > But when it's in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone > offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial > it the same as always - you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way > calling and all the other features - but now your voice is carried by > the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves. > > These phones hand off your calls from Wi-Fi network to cell network > seamlessly and automatically, without a single crackle or pop to > punctuate the switch. As you walk out of a hot spot, fewer and fewer > Wi-Fi signal bars appear on the screen, until - blink! - the T-Mobile > network bars replace them. (The handoff as you move in the opposite > direction, from the cell network into a hot spot, is also seamless, > but takes slightly longer, about a minute.) > > O.K., but how often are you in a Wi-Fi hot spot? With this plan, > about 14 hours a day. T-Mobile gives you a wireless router > (transmitter) for your house - also free, after a $50 rebate. Connect > it to your high-speed Internet modem, and in about a minute, you've > got a wireless home network. Your computer can use it to surf the Web > wirelessly - and now all of your home phone calls are free. > > You know how people never seem to have good phone reception in their > homes? How they have to huddle next to a window to make calls? That's > all over now. The free router is like a little T-Mobile cell tower > right in your house. > > Truth is, the HotSpot @Home phones work with any Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) > router, including one you may already have. But T-Mobile's routers, > manufactured by D-Link and Linksys, have three advantages. > > First, you turn on the router's encryption - to keep neighbors off > your network - by pressing one button, rather than having to fool > with passwords. Second, these routers give priority to calls, so that > computer downloads won't degrade your call quality. Third, T-Mobile's > routers greatly extend the phone's battery life. The routers say, in > gadgetese, "I'm here for you, any time," just once, rather than > requiring the phone to issue little Wi-Fi "Are you there?" pings > every couple of minutes. > > T-Mobile was already a price leader in the cellphone game. But the > HotSpot @Home program can be extremely economical, in four ways. > > SAVING NO. 1 It's not just your calls at home that are free; you may > also get free calls at your office, friends' houses, library, coffee > shops and so on - wherever Wi-Fi is available. You can access both > unprotected and password-protected Wi-Fi networks (you just enter the > password on the phone's keypad). > > The phone has a built-in Search for Networks feature. Once you select > a wireless network, the phone memorizes it. The next time you're in > that hot spot, you're connected silently and automatically. > > There's one big limitation to all this freeness: these phones can't > get onto any hot spot that require you to log in on a Web page (to > enter a credit card number, for example). Unfortunately, this > restriction rules out most airports and many hotel rooms. > > There's one exception - or, rather, 8,500 of them: T-Mobile's > archipelago of hot spots at Starbucks, Borders and other public > places. In these places you encounter neither the fee nor the > Web-page sign-in that you would encounter if you were using a laptop; > the words "T-Mobile Hot Spot" simply appear at the top of your > screen, and you can start making free calls. > > The cool part is that, depending on how many calls you can make in > hot spots, the Wi-Fi feature might permit you to choose a much less > expensive calling plan. If you're a heavy talker, you might switch, > for example, from T-Mobile's $100 plan (2,500 minutes) to its $40 > plan (1,000 minutes). Even factoring in the $10 HotSpot @Home fee, > you'd still save $600 a year. > > SAVING NO. 2 T-Mobile's billing system isn't smart enough to notice > handoffs between Wi-Fi and cellular networks. So each call is billed > according to where it begins. You can start a call at home, get in > your car, drive away and talk for free until the battery's dead. > > The opposite is also true, however; if you begin a call on T-Mobile's > cell network and later enter a Wi-Fi hot spot, the call continues to > eat up minutes. If HotSpot @Home catches on, therefore, the airwaves > will reverberate with people coming home and saying, "Hey, can I call > you right back?" > > SAVING NO. 3 When you're in a hot spot, T-Mobile has no idea where > you are in the world. You could be in Des Moines, Denmark or > Djibouti. So this is a big one for travelers: When you're in a hot > spot overseas, all calls to United States numbers are free. > > SAVING NO. 4 T-Mobile's hope is that you'll cancel your home phone > line altogether. You'll be all cellphone, all the time. And why not, > since you'll now get great cell reception at home and have only one > phone number and voicemail? Ka-ching: there's an additional $500 a > year saved. > > Have T-Mobile's accountants gone quietly mad? Why would they give > away the farm like this? > > Because T-Mobile benefits, too. Let's face it: T-Mobile's cellular > network is not on par with, say, Verizon's. But improving its network > means spending millions of dollars on new cell towers. It's far less > expensive just to hand out free home routers. > > Furthermore, every call you make via Wi-Fi is one less call clogging > T-Mobile's cellular network, further reducing the company's need to > spend on network upgrades. > > In principle, then, HotSpot @Home is a revolutionary, rule-changing, > everybody-wins concept. But before you go canceling lines and > changing calling plans, consider a few small flaws. > > At the moment, you have a choice of only two phones: the Nokia 6086 > and Samsung t409. Both of these are small basic flip phones (both $50 > after rebate and with two-year commitment). They sound terrific; over > Wi-Fi, in fact, they produce the best-sounding cellphone calls you've > ever made. But the screens are small and coarse, and the features > limited. Fortunately, T-Mobile intends to bring the HotSpot @Home > feature to many other phones in the coming months. > > The Wi-Fi sucks power, too; these phones get 6.5 hours of talk time > on the cell network, but only 4 hours over Wi-Fi. > > Finally, T-Mobile eventually intends to price the service at $20 a > month, or $30 for family plans. Only people who sign up during the > introductory period (now through an unspecified end date) will be > offered the $10 price, or $20 for families. > > Even at the higher price, you could still come out ahead. With > HotSpot @Home, T-Mobile has taken a tremendous step into the future. > Most phone companies cower in fear when you mention voice calls over > the Internet (Skype, Vonage and so on). After all, if the Internet > makes the price approach zero, who will pay for phone service? > > But T-Mobile has found a way to embrace and exploit this technology > to everyone's benefit. The result is a smartly implemented, > technologically polished, incredibly inexpensive way to make over > your phone lifestyle. > > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > >
-- ============================== War Eagle
