T-mobile wifi phone

Not sure if this is on topic, but T-mobile is going to raise the price
of their @home service in October, basically from $10 to $20. You can
still grandfather in.

For those not familiar with the service, @home lets you VOIP over your
wifi phone while using your t-mobile number. No air time for the
service.

I have a wifi phone with t-mobile, but don't have the @home plan. It
seems like it is using wifi for phone calls anyway, so I'm not sure
what the @home plan buys you.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I have a wifi phone with t-mobile, but don't have the @home plan. It
> seems like it is using wifi for phone calls anyway, so I'm not sure
> what the @home plan buys you.

I thought the @home allowed you to roam WiFi at T-Mobile hotspots, and it
always worked at your registered (home) WiFi. That's not what the name
implies, but yours working would suggest that it is true.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Sep 28, 1:35 pm, d...@28.usenet.us.com wrote:
> m...@sushi.com wrote:
> > I have a wifi phone with t-mobile, but don't have the @home plan. It
> > seems like it is using wifi for phone calls anyway, so I'm not sure
> > what the @home plan buys you.
>
> I thought the @home allowed you to roam WiFi at T-Mobile hotspots, and it
> always worked at your registered (home) WiFi. That's not what the name
> implies, but yours working would suggest that it is true.
>
> --
> Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

I did some tests. Without having @home, I can phone from wifi and use
t-mobile hotspots. I gather they are just tossing in the hotspot
feature with blackberry internet (i.e. over cellular). The phone is
acting as a proxy of sorts, that is, the ip location from where you
are surfing is not related to the wifi gateway. This might be a
feature since it may make it harder to hack your PC over a wifi
connection.

What I can't get to work is the wifi blackberry as a tethered modem,
at least using the technique I used with my old blackberry. I'm sure
somebody will figure this out. I didn't try bluetooth data. [I'm not
a fan that technique is it doesn't charge the phone power.]

What I guess is paying the @home fee lets you talk all you want off
the meter if using wifi. I suppose that would let you get a cheaper
(less minutes) plan. Its not for me since airtime is pretty cheap (I
grandfathered in on the 1500 minute anytime plane).


I forgot to mention that you can set up the phone not to use the
cellular service. That is how I am certain the phone call I did went
out over wifi.

Believe it or not, there are places in the US where you can get wifi
but not cellular, so this will come in handy.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Believe it or not, there are places in the US where you can get wifi
> but not cellular, so this will come in handy.

My home being one of them ;-)
Cellular is marginal here. I would like to have the WiFi option, but
T-Mobile doesn't offer subscriptions here, although they do roam onto Edge
Wireless, the local carrier.

--
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>Not sure if this is on topic, but T-mobile is going to raise the price
>of their @home service in October, basically from $10 to $20. You can
>still grandfather in.
>
>For those not familiar with the service, @home lets you VOIP over your
>wifi phone while using your t-mobile number. No air time for the
>service.
>
>I have a wifi phone with t-mobile, but don't have the @home plan. It
>seems like it is using wifi for phone calls anyway, so I'm not sure
>what the @home plan buys you.

I do it somewhat differently. I have a Verizon XV6700 Windoze Mobile
Phone/PDA with Wi-Fi. There are wi-fi access points at home, office,
at most of my customers, and some places where I lurk. I use Skype on
my desktops, laptops, and PDA. One the PDA, I only use it for
outgoing calls. Skype Out is about 2 cents per minute to a POTS
phone. Free to other Skype users, which include most of my customers.
Currently, about 90% of my minutes are via Verizon cellular. However,
my use of Skype is slowly increasing.

What's nice about this is that arrangement is that it actually works
and doesn't require a "plan" or other tie in to the wireless carrier.
If I change instruments to a VoIP wireless phone, it still works, with
no contract, rebates, or complications.

The down side is that the voice quality sucks. I did some minor
testing and found that the 416MHz X-Scale processor in the PDA is
seriously overloaded. I wouldn't expect anything better from Windoze.
If I don't clear up RAM (unload running applications) before I make a
call, then it sounds really bad. That's why I use it only for
outgoing calls. I wouldn't have a chance to clear loaded programs
before taking an incoming call.

Incidentally, what I find fascinating is that all the various cellular
carriers were previously busy removing Wi-Fi from their subsidized
cell phones. There were various excuses, but the obvious reason is
that wi-fi constitutes some potential competition to cellular. Then,
along came the iPhone with built in Wi-Fi and now they're all
scrambling to release rehashed phones that include Wi-Fi. My, how
things change overnight.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sep 28, 9:54 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> m...@sushi.com hath wroth:
>
> >Not sure if this is on topic, but T-mobile is going to raise the price
> >of their @home service in October, basically from $10 to $20. You can
> >still grandfather in.
>
> >For those not familiar with the service, @home lets you VOIP over your
> >wifi phone while using your t-mobile number. No air time for the
> >service.
>
> >I have a wifi phone with t-mobile, but don't have the @home plan. It
> >seems like it is using wifi for phone calls anyway, so I'm not sure
> >what the @home plan buys you.
>
> I do it somewhat differently. I have a Verizon XV6700 Windoze Mobile
> Phone/PDA with Wi-Fi. There are wi-fi access points at home, office,
> at most of my customers, and some places where I lurk. I use Skype on
> my desktops, laptops, and PDA. One the PDA, I only use it for
> outgoing calls. Skype Out is about 2 cents per minute to a POTS
> phone. Free to other Skype users, which include most of my customers.
> Currently, about 90% of my minutes are via Verizon cellular. However,
> my use of Skype is slowly increasing.
>
> What's nice about this is that arrangement is that it actually works
> and doesn't require a "plan" or other tie in to the wireless carrier.
> If I change instruments to a VoIP wireless phone, it still works, with
> no contract, rebates, or complications.
>
> The down side is that the voice quality sucks. I did some minor
> testing and found that the 416MHz X-Scale processor in the PDA is
> seriously overloaded. I wouldn't expect anything better from Windoze.
> If I don't clear up RAM (unload running applications) before I make a
> call, then it sounds really bad. That's why I use it only for
> outgoing calls. I wouldn't have a chance to clear loaded programs
> before taking an incoming call.
>
> Incidentally, what I find fascinating is that all the various cellular
> carriers were previously busy removing Wi-Fi from their subsidized
> cell phones. There were various excuses, but the obvious reason is
> that wi-fi constitutes some potential competition to cellular. Then,
> along came the iPhone with built in Wi-Fi and now they're all
> scrambling to release rehashed phones that include Wi-Fi. My, how
> things change overnight.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

I think one of the Korean vendors beat apple to the use of wifi in a
phone.

I don't follow the comment about carriers removing wifi from their
phones. You mean wifi phones were on the market, then removed, then
returned?

I've had some issues with Verizon and dumped them about 2 years ago.
The biggest annoyance was delayed voicemail. This happened twice. Once
the situation was very weird since I was trying to meet up with
someone at an event, hit a dead spot I guess, and ended up meeting
that person by chance after the event. Her voice mail wasn't on my
phone and didn't show up until the next day. Verizon tech support just
reads off a script, so they were useless.

I will admit Verizon has the most cell sites. You get much more
coverage than with T-mobile and the GSM partners. However, one thing I
learned since switching is the digital features of GSM work as you
roam. CDMA is kind of odd. They have something called "extended
digital". This lets you do roam with voice service. In some places,
the digital services don't work. Some places you needed to phone
yourself to check if you have voicemail. With GSM, I gather the
systems differences are less, and all the digital features I used
worked.

T-mobile works out to be 2.6 cents a minute, but I never use all my
minutes, and they don't have roll over.

On Sep 28, 9:00 pm, d...@28.usenet.us.com wrote:
> m...@sushi.com wrote:
> > Believe it or not, there are places in the US where you can get wifi
> > but not cellular, so this will come in handy.
>
> My home being one of them ;-)
> Cellular is marginal here. I would like to have the WiFi option, but
> T-Mobile doesn't offer subscriptions here, although they do roam onto Edge
> Wireless, the local carrier.
>
> --
> Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

I think that means your option would be to get a T-mobile number as
close to home as possible, the use roaming and wifi at home. If most
of your callers are cellular users, the out of town phone number isn't
a big deal.

I quit using my landline when I got T-mobile. Technically I still have
a landline, but I don't use it. I dropped long distance from the line,
which saves about $100 a year. [No more of those stupid bay area
message unit charges either.] I could save another $100 or so if I get
digital only DSL from Speakeasy. However, I 'm not quite there yet.
There is something about being able to dial 911 and have it work. '-)

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>I think one of the Korean vendors beat apple to the use of wifi in a
>phone.

UTstarcom. That's who made the phone I'm using.
<http://www.utstarcom.com>

>I don't follow the comment about carriers removing wifi from their
>phones. You mean wifi phones were on the market, then removed, then
>returned?

No. Last year, Verizon was selling 2 PDA phones with wi-fi. As of a
few months ago, they had replaced the two with wi-fi, with other
vendors models, that didn't have wi-fi. At this time, I don't think
they have any PDA phones with wi-fi. It's not even listed as a
feature of their phones on their web pile:
<http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneOvervie wByDevice&deviceType=PDA/SmartPhones>
For example, my XV6700 is still listed, but there's no mention of
wi-fi anywhere under "features":
<http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&action=viewPhoneDetail& selectedPhoneId=2200>
There is a one line buried under "capabilities". The other phones are
Motorola Q variations, Blackberries, and Palm 650/700 PDA phones, none
of which have wi-fi. See a pattern?

>I've had some issues with Verizon and dumped them about 2 years ago.
>The biggest annoyance was delayed voicemail.

I had this happen about a year ago. I would get voicemail hours after
the message was left. However, I haven't seen it since.


--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

On Sep 29, 11:31 pm, Jeff Liebermann <je...@cruzio.com> wrote:
> m...@sushi.com hath wroth:
>
> >I think one of the Korean vendors beat apple to the use of wifi in a
> >phone.
>
> UTstarcom. That's who made the phone I'm using.
> <http://www.utstarcom.com>
>
> >I don't follow the comment about carriers removing wifi from their
> >phones. You mean wifi phones were on the market, then removed, then
> >returned?
>
> No. Last year, Verizon was selling 2 PDA phones with wi-fi. As of a
> few months ago, they had replaced the two with wi-fi, with other
> vendors models, that didn't have wi-fi. At this time, I don't think
> they have any PDA phones with wi-fi. It's not even listed as a
> feature of their phones on their web pile:
> <http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&a...>
> For example, my XV6700 is still listed, but there's no mention of
> wi-fi anywhere under "features":
> <http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/store/controller?item=phoneFirst&a...>
> There is a one line buried under "capabilities". The other phones are
> Motorola Q variations, Blackberries, and Palm 650/700 PDA phones, none
> of which have wi-fi. See a pattern?
>
> >I've had some issues with Verizon and dumped them about 2 years ago.
> >The biggest annoyance was delayed voicemail.
>
> I had this happen about a year ago. I would get voicemail hours after
> the message was left. However, I haven't seen it since.
>
> --
> Jeff Liebermann je...@cruzio.com
> 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
> Santa Cruz CA 95060http://802.11junk.com
> Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

Wifi isn't quite as essential in a phone that has EDVO. The claim, and
I suspect is it el torro crappo, that RIM is pushing wifi because
HSDPA is too power hungry. So wifi is nice if you have a 2.5G
network.

It's really sad that Verizon is still messing up voicemail, since I
was having that problem over two years ago.

All these cellular vendors have their pluses and minuses. You just
pick the one with the warts you can stand.

(E-Mail Removed) hath wroth:

>Wifi isn't quite as essential in a phone that has EDVO.

From Verizon, EVDO will cost me $60/month and download at perhaps
600Kbits/sec on a good day. Wi-Fi costs me zero and downloads as fast
as the DSL or cable modem can deliver.

>The claim, and
>I suspect is it el torro crappo, that RIM is pushing wifi because
>HSDPA is too power hungry. So wifi is nice if you have a 2.5G
>network.

Wi-Fi is also fairly power hungry. I have to turn off the Wi-Fi
section of my phone when it's not being used. My battery lasts about
3 days if I don't use Wi-Fi. If I run it for an hour, it's dead in
about 8 hours. I haven't bothered to actually measure the current
drain, but judging by the battery life, it's substantial. No clue if
the iPhone of Blackberry 8820 is any better.

>It's really sad that Verizon is still messing up voicemail, since I
>was having that problem over two years ago.

Please re-read what I wrote. I had the problem about a year ago, not
since. I get about 4 voice mails per day (during the week) so I would
know if there's a problem. It's fixed.

>All these cellular vendors have their pluses and minuses. You just
>pick the one with the warts you can stand.

Yep. I have plenty of complaints about Verizon, but they are the
lesser of the available evils.

--
Jeff Liebermann (E-Mail Removed)
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558