[IP] NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial
Begin forwarded message:
From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt@xxxxxx>
Date: December 15, 2006 10:27:50 AM JST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial
<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/technology/14basics.html>
December 14, 2006
Marrying the Cellphone to Cheap Internet Calling
By GLENN FLEISHMAN
SEATTLE
MATTHEW MILLER wanted to cut the cost of his cellphone plan. He and
his wife, Dayna, had regularly exceeded their 2,000-minute-per-month
T-Mobile family plan, incurring extra-use charges that reached $60
some months.
With her home business and his daily commute of two and a half hours
to his job in Seattle, they decided this year to move to the maximum
3,000-minute plan. They spend another $20 a month for unlimited long-
distance calling on their landline.
Mr. Miller, a columnist for Geek.com and ZDNet in his spare time, was
therefore not surprised when T-Mobile asked the couple to join an
early local test of a service that combines the ubiquity of cellular
networks with the flat pricing for unlimited calls available with
some Internet-based phone services.
The new service, HotSpot@Home, allows a subscriber to place calls
from a mobile phone using cellular and Wi-Fi networks, whether a home
wireless network or a hot spot operated by T-Mobile.
In my own testing, I found the service a reasonable first draft of
what could become a reliable alternative to both all-cellular
networks and an emerging set of Wi-Fi-only phones. The marriage might
even save money — for both T-Mobile and its subscribers. Carrying
calls over Wi-Fi networks costs the company as little as 20 percent
of the expense of calls handled on a cellular network.
All calls originating on a Wi-Fi network to numbers in the United
States are included in a monthly fee of $20 for a primary phone and
$5 for additional phones in a family plan. The Wi-Fi plan must be
coupled with a traditional voice cellular service plan of at least
$40 a month.
Although T-Mobile introduced the service in late October, after the
tests in which the Millers took part, the company allows subscribers
to sign up only in the Seattle-Tacoma region, and only at corporate
stores. The service can be used nationwide, however.
...
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