Wifi Calling

[selbyseminole52]

My wife and I have the old 400 minute family plan. Usually that is enough, but some months it can be tight. We had a landline that had become a spam line. Very few people ever called it, and we made very few calls on it. My phone was four years old and her phone broke, so it was time to make a change.

After investigating the wifi calling, I decided to give it a shot. I bought the Blackberry Curve for me and the Blackberry Pearl 8120 for my wife and we subscribed to the $9.99 option for Hotspot at Home for the family plan. In addition I added another line for my son to use while he is at home. He is currently involved in mission work in Central America. I bought the Nokia flip phone that is wifi enabled for him.

Even though my router was working well for internet at home, we had multiple problems when trying to use wifi calling. After a couple of days of playing around with it, I decided to purchase the T-Mobile router. For $30 and a rebate of $30, why not?

That was a week ago Sunday. Since then the wifi connectivity is working great. My line was not originally provisioned correctly and wifi calls were coming out of our bucket of anytime minutes, but customer service corrected that problem and gave 50 bonus minutes to each of the three lines.

I ditched the land line. It feels so good to be without the spam line and to be rid of the new AT & T.

Also, when I was dealing with customer service trying to get my initial issues corrected, I was told my son could take his phone back to Costa Rica and use it there on wifi. She said T-Mobile doesn't officially support that service, but people are doing it all over the world especially in Iraq.

To anyone considering using the wifi service, I think it is great. I definitely recommend you obtain the T-Mobile router since they are designed to give priority to voice traffic.

I did decide to get the $9.99 Blackberry plan on my device, so I don't have internet service through T-Mobile. But the device is working great for accessing the internet at home and wherever free wifi is available.

It is cool to go to a hotspot and know I can start a phone call and walk away and not be charged for any of those minutes, and to know my wife can be at home and talk as much as she wants and the minutes will not be billed. Of course I cannot access internet at a hotspot since I don't subscribe to the full data plan. But the voice over wifi works great.

It has been several years since I have dealt much customer service. I found them to be pleasant and overall more knowledgeable than in the past.

So far, so good on the wifi adventure!

[spleck]

It's nice to hear a success story!

Originally Posted by selbyseminole52

It is cool to go to a hotspot and know I can start a phone call and walk away and not be charged for any of those minutes, and to know my wife can be at home and talk as much as she wants and the minutes will not be billed.

Just remember that the minutes will come out of your regular bucket if you go out of range of the wi-fi.

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by spleck

It's nice to hear a success story!

Just remember that the minutes will come out of your regular bucket if you go out of range of the wi-fi.

Actually calls are billed as they originate with Tmobile so if you start a call in a hot spot and you continue that call it will be unlimited and not count against your minutes, on the flip side though if you start a call on a tower and travel while on that call the signal will be transferred to wifi, but the call will come out of your bucket for the duration.

[selbyseminole52]

Originally Posted by tmobileman

Actually calls are billed as they originate with Tmobile so if you start a call in a hot spot and you continue that call it will be unlimited and not count against your minutes, on the flip side though if you start a call on a tower and travel while on that call the signal will be transferred to wifi, but the call will come out of your bucket for the duration.

Indeed. And, I did test this out. I began a call on wifi and deliberately left the area of wifi coverage and the whole call was billed to wifi. So, you can pop into a Starbucks or any place where you can connect to wifi and commence a call and go on your merry way and talk as long you want.

Tmobileman...a question for you. I see wifi calling as a great deal for me, but also a good deal for T-Mobile. Would it not cost a lot less for T-Mobile to process calls through the internet rather than through their towers? So, when my mobile to mobile or night and weekend calls, which are already unlimited, are placed on wifi won't that save T-Mobile some money? At the very least it will reduce congestion on the towers. Your thoughts, please sir.

[tmobileman]

it would but indeed be cheaper than maintaining towers but I don't know how practical that would be, I mean there isn't wifi in all locations and a tower serves a much broader area than a wifi source does usually so I think it's good to have both options like you do now, the best of both worlds, not to mention all of the customers that would need new handsets if we were to go wifi only, for now I think the way it is set up is cost effective, we are profitable, and I think the network we have established is pretty good, and getting better the wifi option just opens us up to another part of our market and was really intended to improve our coverage indoors and provide our customer base an affordable alternative than having to rely on a landline becoming the only phone you need for both home and mobile needs.

[spleck]

Originally Posted by tmobileman

Actually calls are billed as they originate with Tmobile so if you start a call in a hot spot and you continue that call it will be unlimited and not count against your minutes, on the flip side though if you start a call on a tower and travel while on that call the signal will be transferred to wifi, but the call will come out of your bucket for the duration.

Wow. I would not have expected that. I guess that's to eliminate the confusion and angry customers calling because their handset switched over and started billing them. The other way around is not so hot either--you get home while talking to someone and you've got to hang up on them and call them back. Does T-Mobile keep billing anytime when a call goes in the night/weekend period too?

[walkguru]

Wirelessly posted (Walkguru's: Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.1.11328/534; U; en))

i think that is great. but i wonder how ever one else does it?

[selbyseminole52]

Originally Posted by spleck

Wow. I would not have expected that. I guess that's to eliminate the confusion and angry customers calling because their handset switched over and started billing them. The other way around is not so hot either--you get home while talking to someone and you've got to hang up on them and call them back. Does T-Mobile keep billing anytime when a call goes in the night/weekend period too?

My understanding is that the answer to your question is "Yes." The call is always billed based on the status at the time the call began. If you have free nights and place a call at 8:58 p.m. and talk for one hour the entire 60 minutes will come out of your anytime minutes. Conversely, if you make a call at 6:58 a.m. and talk for one hour the entire call will be considered night minutes.

[tmobileman]

this is correct exactly

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

Also, when I was dealing with customer service trying to get my initial issues corrected, I was told my son could take his phone back to Costa Rica and use it there on wifi. She said T-Mobile doesn't officially support that service, but people are doing it all over the world especially in Iraq.

OMG!!! i didnt even realize that this is very possible.......you could essentially get this service and get free international ALMOST roaming

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by SmArTeStChIlD421

OMG!!! i didnt even realize that this is very possible.......you could essentially get this service and get free international ALMOST roaming

Actually I talked to a customer today who went to brazil and used it, but guess what he had over 400 dollars in international roaming and you know why...he didn't have the unlimited calling feature on his acct he was using just for signal enhancement. With this service there are two options, pay nothing more and use your plan minutes this gives you a stronger signal in wifi locations, and this is what happened to this guy, now if you sign up for the feature (9.99) for unlimited calling, then this will normally work so just be careful if you plan on using it this way.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

so even if you dont have the 9.99 unlimited option your phone can stil use WiFi network but it wil continue to use your minutes???

[tmobileman]

yes that is correct

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

wow you learn A LOT every day

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by SmArTeStChIlD421

wow you learn A LOT every day

why do you have to stick out your tongue at me....lol

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

how the frenchmen in monty python would say: "I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."

[viewfly]

The 3G iPhone (with wifi) will have free national wifi calling from a product called, iCall.

iCall - Free iPhone VoIP

iCall for the iPhone? It's already working and is coming soon to your iPhone. We think you'll find it as revolutionary as we do.

1. Make and receive calls over WiFi
2. Transfer inbound calls from a regular cell call to WiFi instantly and seamlessly - save your expensive minutes
3. Access your same address book
4. Customize your voicemail options

We are part of the Apple iPhone developer program. This is not an application for you naughty jail breakers ;-)

Apple has explicitly stated that VoIP is allowed, just not over Edge networks. Steve himself answered this question in the Q&A session after the last keynote speech.

No need to get a Tmobile account for this. Just use any wifi router, including your one at home. Appl is free

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

thats a definite plus for those of you who have strong wireless networks at home......i know that our Verizon supplied Westell absolutely sucks so when they finish running all the fiber in our area im requesting a modem-only device and getting like a the Netgear NEXT Pre-N routers

[tmobileman]

I hate the Iphone...I am tired of people cancelling and paying an etf to get an Iphone, I guess I am more practical and don't see the value of it, it's a cool phone, that is it, but the service is over priced and for the money I can think of a lot of things I could do, but then again maybe that is because I am not the target demographic for this phone. I am not a follower, so I don't have to have the device that everybody else is having, I have the device that suits my need and that I can get the most bang for my buck. Who knows if I could afford ATT and the Iphone maybe I would consider, but for now I can't so I am happy with my tmobile service and with my good old tmobile dash.

[SmArTeStChIlD421]

the iPhone is a trend.....people are getting it not only because it works but because "EVERYONE ELSE HAS IT!!!"

it's a designer........difference between Walmart and Armani..........

T-Mobile has much more affordable data and i dont see why everyone wants to pay more when T-Mobile already does a pretty good job

[Quint101]

Just a silly question, what's needed for the wifi calling? A special box? Internet? Does the equipment have to be placed in a particular way á la the satellite dish?

What's the difference between HotSpot at home and wifi calling?

[tmobileman]

Originally Posted by Quint101

Just a silly question, what's needed for the wifi calling? A special box? Internet? Does the equipment have to be placed in a particular way á la the satellite dish?

What's the difference between HotSpot at home and wifi calling?

There are two wifi calling options tmobile offers right now, one is unlimited hot spot calling for this you need a tmobile handset that is provisioned to place calls on a wifi network. For in home use you need a wireless router, and a Cable or DSL internet service. While on the go you need to be within range of a wifi signal for the phone to use it to make calls, otherwise you will be making regular GSM calls. You can initiate your service with Tmobile with this service or change your existing service to this, you just need to upgrade your phone and if you want the unlimitied calling it is an add on to your plan of 39.99 or higher single line, or 49.99 family plan of 9.99, if you have a fam plan then the add on is one charge for the entire acct to have unlimited calling from a wifi network again the cost is 9.99. Your phone has to be within range of the router to pull service from it at home otherwise again you are just using regular GSM towers.

The second service is Tmobile @ Home, for this you need a special Router from Tmobile, (which can also support the unlimited hotspot calling) but this router has a sim card in it, you connect this to your cable or DSL service, then you plug a regular land line phone into it, the cost is 10.00 per month and for this service you are required to have either an existing single line GSM plan of 39.99 or higher or a family plan of 49.99 or higher, activation fee applies, and there is also a 2 yr contract requirement.

Both services have free Nationwide Long distance