Early test of T-Mobile $10 home phone service hits one snag

June 25th, 2008, 4:15 am · Post a Comment · posted by Gadgetress

Ever heard of T-Mobile? Yeah, yeah. The mobile phone company. Well, now it wants to be your home telephone company as well. On July 2, it’s offering T-Mobile @Home and charging $10 per month for unlimited local and national calls. You even get to keep your home phone number.

But of course, the overall cost of adding T-Mobile’s new home-phone service is more than $10 a month. Add a T-Mobile cell phone plan ($40 or more) plus broadband Internet ($20 and up) and the special $50 Linksys router and don’t forget the 2-year commitment and well … this wouldn’t be worth it if you aren’t a broadband subscriber or have to break your contract with a rival wireless company.

For those still interested, T-Mobile sent me the @Home kit to try it out myself.

I was excited solely because of the great experience I had last year when I tested T-Mobile’s Hotspot @Home. That service is for customers who want to replace their home phone with their cell phone. When the cell phone is in a Wi-Fi hotspot, it switches from cellular to a Wi-Fi connection, which was free. The switch was so seamless, it shocked me. But I couldn’t see myself relying on one phone at home.

The new T-Mobile @Home solves this dilemma. Read on for my review of the service.

Hoping to avoid any frustration, I followed instructions from the start. The Linksys G router includes four Ethernet ports, two telephone ports and, of course, wireless. Underneath the Linksys label, a cover slides off to reveal two slots for SIM cards. Each card will allow for one phone line. T-Mobile sent me one SIM card to try out.

T-Mobile @Home router has spots for two cellular SIM cards

There was no way to avoid the instruction to “Run (Installation) CD First,” according to the sticker slapped on top of all the port openings. I put in the installation CD in my computer and hit a bump. Instructions are to NOT plug in the new router. Instead, it wanted me to stay plugged in to my existing Internet connection. It scanned my current set up and told me I had to stop my Wi-Fi connection and use the wired Ethernet cable to connect. Simple enough.

T-Mobile @Home router wants you to install software first

Wired and ready to go, the error screen now said, “You aren’t using an Ethernet (wired) connection to access the internet. Please disable all other connections and make sure you have an Ethernet cable connected to your computer.”

T-Mobile @Home services uses a Linksys router But I was! I rebooted. I tried another computer. I plugged it back in. I rebooted a few more times. The installation software repeatedly said the same thing. I was obviously wired to my existing router, my Wi-Fi was turned off and my Internet was working. After nearly 30 minutes of trying to figure this out, I decided to skip the software instructions and just plugged in the T-Mobile router.

It worked. Sigh. I hate wasting time. I got Internet immediately. To speed up the review, I took my existing home phone and plugged it into the T-Mobile router (T-Mobile also shipped me a 2-unit V-Tech phone) . I got a dial tone and started dialing. Phone conversations were normal, neither party noticed anything different. If it wasn’t for the software installation, I would have been up and running in five minutes. Not bad.

Now, will I switch? Possibly. I pay Vonage $25 a month for home phone service. This would save me $15 a month, or $180 a year.

But then I looked at T-Mobile @Home’s features. The service includes call waiting, caller ID, 3-way conferencing, voice mail and call forwarding. Vonage offers that and more — voice messages can be emailed to my inbox, a cell phone can be set up to simultaneously ring when the home number is called, and calls to Europe are free.

And separately, there’s a growing chance that I may be switching to another mobile-phone company after July 11.

Overall, the experience was good, except for the little software installation setback. The price is right. I would recommend this to the T-Mobile user who’s hoping to save money.

More pics:

Related stories:

Lightning review: T-Mobile’s @Home VoIP service (Gizmodo)
T-Mobile Offers New Home Phone Service (NY Times)

Past T-Mobile stories on Gadgetress:
Starbucks’ free Wi-Fi isn’t cool with T-Mobile
Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks — with restrictions
T-Mobile to plant trees for paperless customers
Free and cheap 411 alternatives

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