T Mobile Wi-Fi Calling
I’m in the market for a new cell phone and provider. I currently have a Razr phone from Verizon. I get absolutely horrible service at home and at the office. At home I have to go outside on my back patio, and at work I have to hang up and call people back from my desk. Other than that it works fine.
You’d think since my home and office are the two places I reside at for the greater part of my existance that I would have ordered me up a new phone by now, but I guess I’d rather put up with crummy service than spend a Saturday at the mall waiting for an hour at a cell phone store talking endlessly about plans, texting, contracts, features, the web, number of minutes, and on and on with enthusiastic young salespeople. I make calls, text, and take photos. That’s it. My ringtone is set to default, and except for changing my wallpaper to Chichen Itza that’s the only customizing I’ve ever done on a cell phone.
Here’s a feature that came to my attention which may sway my carrier choice. I am smart enough to realize I need to dump my shitty Verizon service, but I didn’t know who to switch to, and again I really just don’t care or want to deal with it.
One feature I’d like is the ability to use a cell phone overseas. For most folks using their cell phone overseas is a no go. You need a special phone, or have to buy a chip or card. I haven’t used my cell phone outside of the states except for Mexico, where I can easily make calls without additional equipment. Maybe it’s easy, but having never done it seems like a cumbersome ordeal, and of course I loathe visiting cell phone stores.
This phone by T-Mobil has a feature which will connect through any Wi-Fi point – allowing you to make and receive calls from anywhere there’s Wi-Fi. Apparently Wi-Fi calling is the same price everywhere, regardless of location, and of course will work in the most remotest of service areas provided there’s a Wi-Fi connection. If you’re sitting at a coffee chop in Addis Ababa it will ring. No expensive equipment or lengthy setup, and much less bulkier than a satellite phone.
Pictured is the Blackberry 8120 Pearl phone, the entry level Blackberry. By selecting “Hot Spot @ Home” from the feature list of T-Mobil’s phone site you can see all phones available with Wi-Fi calling. To me this is cool. And even at home if my service is not perfect I can simply switch the phone to MY Wi-Fi.
For the frequent overseas traveler this is a phone and feature worth considering. If anyone has a phone with this feature I’d love to hear about it, and know whether it’s easy (or not) to switch between cell and Wi-Fi calling. When my contract with Verizon is up in June I’ll most likely be changing over to this and will post an update.
by Caleb Cross and James Van Dellen
I have the Curve with Wi-Fi. It works beautifully. I use my home Wi-Fi and make all my home calls through it. It really saves on the minutes. The switch from one to the other is seamless and call quality is pretty good. Most people don’t know that I am using VOIP and while there is an occasional problem with spotty connection, in general I have no complaints. I have reached the point where I don’t care what kind of new phones come out, I am sticking with T-Mobile for the Wi-Fi and don’t plan to switch carriers.
Hi Nanalita. Thanks for the comment. I was wondering how easy it is to switch between the two modes.
Iooking forward to getting it, but unfortunately I have one more month on my Verizon contract.
Have a great weekend – p.s. you have a beautiful name!
I have had tmobile @home since it first came out It is the BEST. So many places have unsecured hot spots I am always finding new places to connect to (resturants/stores other businesses) that have unsecured networks that allow me to log on and make calls for FREE and bnot take away from my bucket minutes. If you don’t have t your silly for missing out on a DEAL!
James, to answer your question above: Switching between the two modes is seemless. The only problem I have seen is that my EDGE/GPRS connection sometimes will not connect automatically when leaving my office with Wi-fi. All it takes is about 2 clicks to get it working and it doesn’t happen too much. The reason I got the BB 8120 is for the office, my parents vacation home has no cell service but the wifi works great over the cable modem, and overseas. I have not used it overseas but if anyone has, please reply and let me know how well it works.
I recently upgraded my basic T-Mobil cell phone service to TMobil VOIP at home my old land line for 10 bucks a month. I upgraded my phone to a Samsung T-729 Katalyst a slider phone that is wifi and I can use it as a modem to my laptop when I am in country with no dialup.
I am very happy and wish I had done it much sooner. Not only do I have better service and nicer phone I am saving all kinds of money cause not only did I cut Bell off at home I cut Verizon Land line off in Country and also Juno to dialup.
I took the myfave plan with 300 minutes and wifi which is free when I use it. The only thing else to consider is that for some reason I don’t understand T Mobile is behind Sprint and Verizon and AT&T on speed but I am so happy with what I have now I can wait for that.
Good Luck
I have been looking at T-mobile WiFi calling for some time now. A co-worker has it and says that it works almost perfect. You may want to do more research before heading abroad and assuming all calls on the WiFi are free. I happened to see a rant from a user who got billed even though they made overseas calls and were on WiFi. T-mobile pointed to the small print when they called to question their bill. That said, I will probably switch to T-mobile for this feature when my contract is up.
Hi,
I bought a blackberry curve 8310 from ebay. I sent it to a friend in Southeast Asia as a gift. They were very excited to receive it but soon learned that it could not be operated because it is required wi-fi. I am very ignorant about these issues, please anyone educate me what is “Wi-Fi” and how can resolve this problem? Thanks
I have the Blackberry Curve (8900) and works perfectly. I brought it with me in the Phillipines last August and made literally 100s of calls to the US. It is absolutely FREE!! I connected via wifi and just to make sure I turned off the wireless network. It works perfectly!! The minutes are free. Just make sure you add the Hotspot calling feature of $9.99 a month.
T-Mobile is the BEST!!