T-Mobile had launched this home phone service in July 2008 and had offered it for $10per month. The good news is that this does not impact the company's UMA-based @Home Wi-Fi calling service.
"The needs of our customers are constantly changing, and T-Mobile must foresee and adapt to these changes," T-Mobile said in a statement. "As such, T-Mobile plans to soon discontinue selling the T-Mobile@Home service; however, we will continue to support the service for customers who are @Home subscribers. No changes are anticipated in pricing of the service, nor will this decision impact the Wi-Fi calling (Unlimited HotSpot Calling) service."
The need for UMA to provide offload and improving coverage perseveres!
7 comments:
Steve,
I believe you were mistaken.
The article in Fierce Wireless says T-Mobile is discontinuing @Home Service.
Ie., They do not plan to offer UMA service for new customers, which is rather unfortunate.
That's why we published the post, it is misleading. But I can confirm T-Mobile is not stopping it's UMA (Wi-Fi) service.
I never used @Home. Initially they had a big marketing push with it -- but that died off..
I use UMA on my Blackberry and Love it -- it's a key reason I don't leave T-Mobile for another carrier.
@Home would have made a great partner with say a Cable company that didn't offer their own (or even one that did) voice service...
I have been having trouble finding a good UMA phone, other than the blackberries.
I have been with T-mobile since it was Omnipoint and have been using UMA since they started their hotspot @home service (predecessor to the @home service)
They seem to be de-emphasizing it quite a bit these days.
No surprise. People will rather use SIP-agent on their mobile than UMA.
Interesting comment, but I'm not sure that's true.
A SIP client on a phone does something very different than UMA. UMA is your existing mobile service running over Wi-Fi, providing better coverage and potentially discounted calling.
A SIP client is *not* your standard mobile service. it's a new number and a new service. It's primarily used for cheap international calling. A SIP client does nothing to improve your coverage.
Note that SIP is a technology, the problem is what service does it entail. And if the service is cheap local calling, well, UMA does that really well.
come and show your support for the T-Mobile UMA fan page on facebook!! Let's hope they bring UMA to all Android phones!!1
http://www.facebook.com/pages/T-Mobile-USA-UMA-Wifi-Calling/152085804808866?ref=ts
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