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T-Mobile dropping HotSpot@Home VOIP service

By | January 12, 2010, 8:01am PST

Summary: T-Mobile USA is discontinuing its HotSpot@Home phone program. No more free, unlimited VOIP calls via Wi-Fi at home anymore, at least not through T-Mobile. Skype, anyone?

T-Mobile USA is discontinuing its HotSpot@Home phone program. No more free, unlimited VOIP calls via Wi-Fi at home anymore, at least not through T-Mobile. Skype, anyone?

The program has been in place for two years, but apparently never hit it big. Current HotSpot@Home members can continue to use their subscriptions until they run out, and T-Mobile will continue to support phone calls via Wi-Fi in public hotspots.

Other than that, it doesn’t look like T-Mobile will be releasing a replacement to this service anytime soon.

Subscriptions were between $10 to $15 per month for unlimited calling for phones plugged into a broadband-connected adapter. But when Skype has monthly subscriptions starting at $2.95 that you can use from the ease of any compatible computer or smartphone, the HotSpot@Home program just doesn’t seem worth it.

Any T-Mobile users out there distraught over this?

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T-Mobile, Wireless LANs, Telecom & Utilities, Wi-Fi, Wireless And Mobility, Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

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Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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RE: T-Mobile dropping HotSpot@Home VOIP service
cngabrie 19th Jan 2010
T-Mobile @Home VoIP has been terrible for me in the three months I've used it. Even though it's only $10/mo. the cost of having to take calls on my wife's cell phone because of the down time has more than tripled my old Vonage bill. In other words, I'm exceeding her cell minutes (also t-mobile... scam) because of lousy uptime.
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HotSpot@Home
Net-Tech_z 12th Jan 2010
never worked as promised anyway. always dropped calls when leaving or entering hotspot range. was supposed to handoff like cell to cell does. switched to unlimited account and phones that could receive signal in house.
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CallCentric Asterisk FreePBX in Ubuntu 9.10!
Grayson Peddie 12th Jan 2010
Only 2 cents a minute outgoing and 1.5 cents a minute for incoming calls.

The benefits provided by Asterisk+FreePBX is you can setup about a couple of extensions. Two extensions for home, and one remote extension away from home. You can have as many softphones/hardware phones as you want.

That's the beauty of home-based PBX.
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RE: T-Mobile dropping HotSpot@Home VOIP service
rick@... 12th Jan 2010
There is a lot of confusion over over @Home services by TMo. First you have the phones that switch to WiFi at home and Hostpots. Then you have TMobile's VOIP service (like Vonage).

From what I understand it's the VOIP service that is getting cancelled.

I've been a TMo VOIP subscriber for a while. While their international rates were junk (couldn't compete with Vonage), it was hard to beat the $10/mo fee. And the voice quality was actually better than my experiences with other VOIP providers.

I'm sad to see it go.
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RE: T-Mobile dropping HotSpot@Home VOIP service
johnfn 13th Jan 2010
I have had the @home service for only a few months and it works fine. The wifi calling on my TMo cell works well also. I wish more people signed up for the @ home service. They should have marketed it more aressively.
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RE: T-Mobile dropping HotSpot@Home VOIP service
cngabrie 19th Jan 2010
T-Mobile @Home VoIP has been terrible for me in the three months I've used it. Even though it's only $10/mo. the cost of having to take calls on my wife's cell phone because of the down time has more than tripled my old Vonage bill. In other words, I'm exceeding her cell minutes (also t-mobile... scam) because of lousy uptime.

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