Great way for U.S. customers to roam!

[snidely]

As I previously mentioned in another thread, T-Mobile U.S. has come out with a couple combination wifi/GSM phones. For $10/mo. you can get unlimited calling if within range of an accessible wifi. You can use it w.o. getting the $10 option, but usage comes out of your normal bucket of minutes. They call this option "hotspot@home".

We just ran a test. My wifi TMobile phone is in Costa Rica. Calls to and from were virtually as good as over GSM. I went on line and the T-M site DOES show those calls on my account as being UMA (wifi) calls, meaning that phone can receive calls for free and call any U.S. number without cost. (I had been afraid they may charge the $3/min. roaming charge for Costa Rica since, technically, they would know the connection was via Costa Rican ISP.)

I think this T-M service alone might suit some intl. travelers fm. the U.S. This, in combination w. a intl. SIM card of choice would be a good combo.

I think some European carriers have this wifi/GSM service. Can they do the same thing?

...mike

[andy]

It comes out of your minutes?

Why not use a different VoIP provider instead?

You could get hundreds of minutes a month to USA - free

[bbob]

wifi wow great. So when outside the usa you have a computer that shows you all available wifi access points ?
When you find a point you want to stay within 50 metre of that point so you can be called ?

Wifi is nice but using t-mobile you can only use their access point. Wifi has a limited range.
Wifi is nice when staying at hotels or working in a restaurent or starbuck or mcdonalds.

But wifi is in no way a replacement for cell phone bacause of very limited availablility and range.
Just to call wifi it's to much trouble finding an access point.

[snidely]

I didn't mean to say wifi is a replacement for cell. It is useful if you are, for eg., staying in someone's home for a few days overseas or be in an office for some amount of time etc. When in Costa Rica, at a friend's home, several people made use of the free calling back home.
It's just another tool. There isn't just one tool out there that will work for everyone in every situation.
BTW, there is free wifi at Ft. Lauderdale airport AND as i recall, at the San Jose, CR airport.
Phone worked fine.

...mike

[Stu]

I think TMobile's Hot Spot at home is an interesting solution. I do pretty much the same thing using my E61. I mostly use Truphone on it, but also have Fring.

The thing I was curious about with TMobile's Hotspot at Home was what ports it uses and how similar the UMA protocol was to the industry standard protocols. Whle the program is still relatively small, it occurred to me that some of the problems people have visiting places such as D ubai, might be eliminated

[jeffharris]

Well, I actually was going to go to T-Mobile today to query about the HotSpot@home, but, I'll ask here.

Of course, I am international half the year, so, this potentially is great, and I had thought about this when I heard about the service.

But, must I carry around the T-mobile Wifi router, or, can I use my Apple airport Express I carry with me, to make my hotel rooms wireless?

Meaning, is the HotSpot@home a software based connection from via any Wifi phone (like my TyTN), or, is it something you can use any Wifi phone, but also exclusive only through using their Wifi router?

[Stu]

HotSpot at Home can connect through almost any router. The TMobile router simply provides QOS, but I'd be interesting in finding out what those settings are.

To the best of my knowledge, TMobile does not use SIP. It is not a software only solution, it is directly tied to the hardware -- that is why there is no HS@H's for Dash or other TMobile smartphones. Their forthcoming WiFi Blackberry is supposed to support this.

I haven't seen anything @ XDA Developers about getting a TyTn to work with HS@H either.

[jeffharris]

Originally Posted by Stu

Their forthcoming WiFi Blackberry is supposed to support this.

Thanks ... I thought I would just get the T-Mo Blackberry 8310 (after just getting the 8300) ... and hopefully figure a way to use with any router ...

[DRNewcomb]

Originally Posted by andy

It comes out of your minutes?

Why not use a different VoIP provider instead?

You could get hundreds of minutes a month to USA - free

Andy,
I've asked myself the same question. Or, why not just use my Palm for VOIP? One thing about American cellular subscriptions is that the per minuite cost is so low that it is almost free. Some plans give you 3000 minutes for less than US$40/month and you may even get unlimited night and weekend calling too. So, with this sort of plan, I guess you'd be able to sit in CR and chat on your cell phone for hours at night and on weekends with no extra charge whatsoever. And you'd be using your same incoming and outgoing number as if you were still in the US; same address book, etc.

[jeffharris]

Originally Posted by DRNewcomb

Andy,
I've asked myself the same question. Or, why not just use my Palm for VOIP? One thing about American cellular subscriptions is that the per minuite cost is so low that it is almost free. Some plans give you 3000 minutes for less than US$40/month and you may even get unlimited night and weekend calling too. So, with this sort of plan, I guess you'd be able to sit in CR and chat on your cell phone for hours at night and on weekends with no extra charge whatsoever. And you'd be using your same incoming and outgoing number as if you were still in the US; same address book, etc.

I think it is nice because it is EASY, and SIMPLE. You can use your same trusty GSM device, with the same phone number SIM, and seamlessly hand off. I guess that works for some people. Especially when I am in the Hollywood Hills in LA, it's nice to be able to hand off to a router, and use my cell in an area of no signal.