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 Review by jonazen 
UPDATED: 132 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 842 visits, last login: 55 days ago
 Princeton Junction,Mercer,NJ
 $12 per month (24 month contract)
 "Quality of service / sound, ease of setup, price"
 "Contract and ETF"
 "Fantastic value for existing T-Mobile customer"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
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I've been a T-Mobile customer since they were Voicestream in my area - probably about 9 or 10 years (I don't recall exactly), with three lines for last several years. The service has been excellent, which is why I've stuck with them every time I had a chance to switch. I had been considering VoIP for a while, but finally decided to make the jump when T-Mobile's offering appeared.
I have Comcast for TV and Internet, and have considered their version of a "triple play" for the last several months. However a few things concerned me about this, such as:
- the incredibly spotty reviews I've read about their Digital Voice offering
- the price: about the most expensive of the VoIP providers
Verizon is gradually wiring up neighborhood for FIOS and I had been considering this. It's probably going to be available here within 2 to 3 months. But I've witnessed SO many horror stories with their customer service, and their prices aren't anything to write home about.
In general, reviews of VoIP services seemed too inconsistent, and I really couldn't get excited about any of the alternatives.
When T-Mobile announced T-Mobile@Home for $10 a month, I finally got interested. After reading up on it, and reading the comments I found online - very positive generally - I decided to give it a try.
I verified with Customer Care that I could purchase a router and pair of vTech phones to get started, and simply use the default phone number they assigned to me. The idea was to try it out for a few days, and call Customer Care to port over my old land line number if all went well.
I went to a local T-Mobile-owned retail store, had a great chat with the salesperson (who was quite knowledgeable), and brought home the new devices. I replaced my old Netgear router with the new Linksys wrtu54g for T-Mobile, spent about 10 mins configuring everything to work together, and plugged in the new phones. That's it -- I was up and running.
The sound quality is superb. These new DECT 6 phones, in combination with T-Mobile's service, are clearer and cleaner than my "last generation" vTech 5.8ghz phones with Verizon POTS ("plain old telephone service").
The voicemail is essentially the same voicemail system I've been using with my T-Mobile cell service. Now I have one voicemail protocol to deal with for mobile and home use -- very nice.
The vTech DECT 6 phones are very nice, and have dedicated voicemail keys as well as one that lights up when there is a voicemail message waiting at T-Mobile's system. This isn't unique to T-Mobile: a few phones can make use of FSK or "stutter-tone" signalling from the voicemail system to activate a message waiting indicator on the phone itself. Just very nicely implemented here: Every phone in my house will be one of these, and all have the voicemail indicator - so I can see if voicemail is waiting from any phone in the house. Dedicated phone buttons make it easy to listen, skip through, save and delete messages.
The ETF is a bit annoying, but I look at it this way: The service seems to be fine, and I've had excellent experience dealing with T-Mobile for years. I don't expect to be cancelling. The ETF has also been redefined to decline as the months go by: at 1 year, the penalty drops, at 18 months and then 21 months still further.
In the end, it's actually anticlimactic: everything just works, as advertised, perfectly - with very little effort on my part. I now have a great new service and system, and I will start saving about $70 a month over my old combination of Verizon local and AT&T long distance. Another bonus is getting rid of two bills each month (Verizon & AT&T), and having T-Mobile@Home simply showing up as one more line item on my monthly bill from them.
Very very happy with this so far.
- Jon
UPDATE 7/17/09: We've been living with T-Mobile@Home for quite a while now, and we are essentially totally used to it. The call quality is still superb. The DECT 6.0 phones are still like new, and work quite well. I'm a bit disappointed that I can only have 5 of them interconnected on the one phone line - but that's a limitation of the phone rather than the service, and somehow we're "surviving" with "only 5" phones... 
I have not encountered a "no blue light" event in several months. For whatever reason, the whole setup seems more stable than ever. I have only had to reset the router once in the last four or five months. I hadn't noticed any problems with the VoIP service, but I DID have problems with my T-Mobile Blackberry 8900 and its UMA/WiFi connection to the Linksys router. UMA is still a flakey technology for T-Mobile: sometimes it's great, other times it simply cuts out for no apparent reason. Anyway -- UMA service stopped working from my Blackberry. I rebooted the Blackberry -- no joy. So I rebooted the LInksys router, and all started working again. So -- the problem seems to have been something in the WiFi/UMA portion of the router firmware. The VoIP service itself seems to be quite solid at this point, and we're quite happy with it, as it "just works", which is what I wanted. In the meantime, we're still saving a bundle, as the cost is $10 plus odds and ends of taxes and fees that tack on another couple of dollars.
Still happy -- great deal overall.
Followup comments:  
bobgwen
join:2001-07-07
Bartow, FL
 ·Comcast
| T-mobile at home I am glad I saw your post because I too have been a T-mobile customer since they were voice stream. And my wife and I have been thinking about getting their $10.00 a month home service. And, like you, I would be getting rid of verizon for home and at&t for long distance. My only problem is I have a home alarm monitored by adt and I have been looking into the monitoring companies that look at it over broadband. How much is the final bill with taxes and fees tacked on the $10.00?
--
brought to you by Carl's Jr.
Esteban Colberto for President of Cuba | |
| | | | | 
YPAM
@bellsouth.net
| TMobile@Home I too just got TMobile at home and have also been a long time customer of TMobile , and have had a very good experience with their service. TMobile @ Home I must say surprised me. It's a very nice clear voice connection. My brother called me the other day and he lives out of state, I literally thought he was in town. The connection and voice quality was excellent.
I canceled my landline and use this service at home along with their cell phone service. You might expect if you lose your internet service you won't have phone service, but if you have a decent reliable broadband/DSL or Cable internet connection you could expect a reliable inexpensive service. Living in Florida one might expect some weather related outages with the internet and phone down time, but I figured if that happens I'll use my cell phone. Really, I experience very few outages, so I'm thrilled to be trying this service.
I give it thumbs up! | |
|
YPRAM
@bellsouth.net
| I too just got TMobile at home and have also been a long time customer of TMobile , and have had a very good experience with their service. TMobile @ Home I must say surprised me. It's a very nice clear voice connection. My brother called me the other day and he lives out of state, I literally thought he was in town. The connection and voice quality was excellent.
I canceled my landline and use this service at home along with their cell phone service. You might expect if you lose your internet service you won't have phone service, but if you have a decent reliable broadband/DSL or Cable internet connection you could expect a reliable inexpensive service. Living in Florida one might expect some weather related outages with the internet and phone down time, but I figured if that happens I'll use my cell phone. Really, I experience very few outages, so I'm thrilled to be trying this service.
I give it a thumbs up! | |
|
rosie26y
@rr.com
| I am very interested in the @home service. I have been a t-mobile customer for a few years now and like it very much.
I have been researching the service but have been unable to find a complete list of calling features it comes with. I am now using a digital phone service through Time Warner. There is a feature on that which blocks private callers. I was curious if the @home service has this feature and what others besides the call waiting/ caller id that's the norm there are. I'd appreciate it if someone could list the features.
Thanks, Rosie  | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
 ·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: @home features Hi Rosie-
After my initial review, I experienced two brief outages in the first 4 days of use. Both times the blue LED on the router went out (this indicates loss of VoIP service) and the phones lost their dial tone. In both cases, I rebooted the router and phone service was available again within a minute.
Not ideal, but if it's just a matter of interim growing pains, I can deal with it. The second time this happened I got Customer Care on the phone, and the rep I spoke with mentioned that she had heard a couple of other complaints like mine, and that rebooting the router fixed them in all cases. As of 4 days ago (July 23) Customer Care had no official instructions from Tech Support about the issue, and there was a 20 minute hold queue when I asked about tech support, so I decided to try back another time if the problems continued.
That was 4 days ago - and I haven't had a single issue since then. Not sure what this means...perhaps T-Mobile WAS having an issue and it's been resolved - impossible to know right now. Everything else works so well that I'm willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience if it looks like it will be resolved down the road. I must say that the last 4 days of service have been flawless, which is certainly an improvement over the first 4.
Re: your question about features -- at the moment, the feature set is very basic compared to some of the other VoIP providers. Caller ID, Call Waiting, 3-Way Conference Calling, Call Forwarding and the same Voicemail that you have on your T-Mobile mobile phone account(s) are all standard.
I may be wrong, but I believe the only optional feature at the moment is "CallerTunes" (T-Mobile's version of "ringback tones" - where you can pay a small monthly fee to have a specific sound clip played for a caller instead of the ringing sound they normally hear while waiting for you to answer.
Some of the competing services certainly offer more features right now, such as web-access to voicemail (e.g., "visual voicemail") or email notification of a waiting message. Those really don't excite me, and aren't decision points for me.
The sound quality is superb with T-Mobile@Home, Customer Care at T-Mobile is excellent - and has been for years - which is one of the reasons I've stuck with them through every renewal when I had a cost-free option to change carriers. I've got the exact same people helping me now with my home phone that I do with my mobile lines. When a compare notes with my friends and colleagues who have Verizon service, the contrast is stark to say the least!
One more feature that may be significant if you call home when you're out, or somebody from home calls your mobile: if you have unlimited T-Mobile to T-Mobile as part of your plan (and I do), calls between a T-Mobile cellphone and your T-Mobile@Home account do not go against the minutes allotment in your mobile plan: your T-Mobile@Home is treated just like another T-Mobile cellphone number for the purposes of inter-phone billing. Seems that perhaps 20% of my mobile calling is to/from home, so this will reduce my minutes usage noticeably.
Some interesting tidbits regarding the setup at home:
You can plug any standard phone into the phone jack on the back of the WRTU54G-TM router. There are two jacks, and two SIM slots in the device corresponding to these: each router can handle up to two telephone numbers this way - if you want a second line, you can get a second T-Mobile@Home provisioned SIM and pay another $10/month for a second line.
I chose the DECT 6 phone from vtech that T-Mobile promotes for a couple of reasons, rather than keeping my old phones (which were perfectly good 5.8GHz vtech's). Most wireless phone sets that are designed to be expandable (multiple phones) have their own answering machine. If they have any kind of VMWI (visual message waiting indicator) on the handset, it's generally tied to the built in answering machine on the base unit. In contrast, these vtech DECT 6 phones are NOT designed to use shared proprietary answer machine -- the assumption is that you will either provide your own answering machine, or be hooked up to a 3rd party answering service such as T-Mobile's voicemail system.
The difference is that systems such as T-mobile's voicemail will typically implement an industry standard signalling technology (FSK or "stutter tone") that a number of systems will recognize. Here's what this means to you:
The WRTU54G-TM router DOES recognize the standards (FSK / stutter tone), and will indicate that a message is waiting on t-mobile voicemail by blinking the blue LED on your router for the corresponding phone line. I haven't tried this, but I'm guessing that a standard phone plugged into the router will probably play a "stutter tone" if there's a message waiting when you pick up the handset. Verizon and its predecessors (Bell Atlantic, etc) all did this for years with their managed voicemail services. Not bad - but you have to pick up the phone to see if there's a message waiting for you.
However, if you use one of the handsets designed to respond to FSK / stutter tone, you will get a visual signal on the handset showing that there's an unheard message waiting in voicemail. There are a few such phones on the market (not too many, as most assume you'll have their answering machine on your base station), but the vtech DECT 6 phones from T-Mobile are competitively priced and good quality.
My setup: once I got the first two phones (one with a base station, one extension) setup from T-Mobile, I got on vtech's website and ordered 3 more extensions at $30 a piece. They arrived at my home 2 days later. About a minute to pair each phone with the base station, and I had five handsets distributed around my house.
Now - any time there's a voice mail message waiting, ALL FIVE handsets light up the dedicated voicemail button on the phone, so I can see that there's a message waiting from anywhere in the house. The dedicated buttons on the phone come pre-programmed (they can be set to use with other vendor's voicemail systems) to work with T-Mobile voicemail - so I can call Voicemail with a single keypress, pause, skip, delete, etc with dedicated buttons.
The DECT 6 phones have great range (I walk around outside with them) and great sound quality. Between the improved audio and the natural integration of their features with T-Mobile voicemail, I'm willing to replace my old 5.8 GHz phones (which I will sell).
But it's not required: you can plug any standard phone into the WRTU54G-TM router and it will work.
One last interesting wrinkle: I've read this on a few sites -- once you disconnect "the phone company" (most likely Verizon) from your home telephone wiring (legacy in-wall wires / phone jacks / etc), the wiring is simply there for you to use. You can, for instance, get a standard phone extension cord with an RJ45 plug at each end, put one end into your WRTU54G-TM router, and the other end into a phone jack in the wall (remember: external phone service must be DISCONNECTED first!), and "light up" all the connected phone jacks in your house. You're basically powering your home wired phone system with T-Mobile now instead of "the phone company". For people who don't want to go with wireless phones in the house, this may be a perfect alternative approach.
A couple of caveats: 1) I have not personally tried this, although I have read several articles indicating that it works well. 2) I have read mixed reports about people having success with T-Mobile@Home combined with a home answering machine -- if you're counting on using a dedicated answering machine instead of T-Mobile's voicemail, I would research this more first, as it may not work.
As I write this, I'm on day 8 with T-Mobile@Home, and it has been flawless for the past 4. Assuming no surprises in the next 24 hours, I'll be asking T-Mobile to port over my home number to the service, and dropping my old combo of Verizon local and AT&T long distance, which has been costing me a total of about $75 a month for years. Instant savings of $65 a month, better customer service, and elimination of two bills in the mailbox each month, since my T-Mobile@Home line simply shows up as a new line on my existing T-Mobile monthly bill.
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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rosie26y
@rr.com
| Re: @home features WOW! Thanks so much for all that info Jon. It's extremely helpful to me! I was pretty sure that the features were just the basic ones but I just wanted to check with people who are using the service. I have a Uniden wireless phone system at the moment. It's a 2.4gHZ. There's a DECT 6.0 system on the Uniden site that is made for the @home type service I am pondering over. It comes with the base plus an extra handset for $35 and extra handsets are on sale for $18. I've had good luck with Uniden so far. I have digital phone service and have 6 phones (3 on the uniden I mentioned and then 2 on another wireless system and one with an aswering machine.) I like the idea of what you mentioned about plugging in the @home service to "light up" all the jacks in my home. That would make things easier until I could get all the phones on one system, whether I go with the uniden or the ones t-mobile offers.
Again, thanks for all the great info. You've helped me out a lot.
Rosie | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: @home features Happy to share! I'm pleased to note that the system is still up (I was out of the house for a few hours), bringing me almost to the end of day 8 with the phones, and the end of 4 full days with no problem. I'll report back as I learn more about this and I get more experience with the service. Hopefully good news! Rosie - if you go with this, please share your experiences too.
thx!
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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rosie26y
@rr.com | Re: @home features Ok, will do Jon!
Thanks a bunch!
Rosie | |
| | | Probedude
join:2004-05-09
Ventura, CA
| FWIW, I've just had to reboot my T-mobile VOIP router - ironically while I was typing a note on person's blog about my problems porting my landline number over.
While typing, my Yahoo Messenger went offline. I couldn't visit or ping any external website. I couldn't log into the t-mobile/Linksys VOIP router, I could not ping my DSL modem.
I power cycled the VOIP router, everything is fine again.
Now that I think about it, I had a similar problem a few days ago but that cleared up by itself after ~ 5 mins. (That time I was able to log into my DSL modem and diagnotics on it all passed so it wasn't the problem then either).
Bugs in the router or the T-mobile service? (I'm thinking the router)
Lastly, porting of my landline has been unsuccessful as of yet though when I called yesterday (the day it was supposed to be completed) they 'took care of everything and it should work now'. Today I called I was put on hold for 25 mins, then got an operator that said that the number transfer dept. closed 15 mins ago!
I'm happy with the quality of the service. Hopefully things will just keep getting better. | |
| | | | Probedude
join:2004-05-09
Ventura, CA
| Re: @home features Another FWIW. The firmware for this router is no longer on Linksys website.
Since this is a router specific to T-Mobile,I wonder if all firmware updates will be obtained from T-Mobile from now on.
(I saw something similar posted regarding their SPA900 product) | |
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rosie26y
@rr.com
| Re: @home features Thanks Jon. All good stuff to know and keep in mind. My next upgrade isn't until April so maybe a lot of these issues will be taken care of. *fingers crossed* I will just keep up with reading other people's experiences til then.
Thanks for posting, Rosie | |
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rosie26y
@rr.com | Thanks for your posts also, Probedude! All this info is very useful to me!
Rosie | |
| | | | Probedude
join:2004-05-09
Ventura, CA | Took 4 calls on separate days, but finally my landline number is ported. Yay! Now I can cancel my extra phone line AND cancel long distance on the main line. | |
| | | | | Probedude
join:2004-05-09
Ventura, CA | Re: @home features Had to power cycle the Linkys TM VOIP router today.
Wife called and said she couldn't get on the internet and the blue light was out.
This happened about 10 days ago. Others are having similar problems. | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: voice mail light I don't think there should be compatibility issues. As far as I know, T-Mobile's VMWI signalling is simply using one of the industry standards (FSK / stutter tone).
I would suggest a couple of things to try:
1) if you can find the actual model number of the Phillips unit, see if you can get technical info on it regarding what it will respond to for VMWI activation. I believe most units will respond to either FSK or stutter tone, but this is really on the edge of my knowledge, so I'm speculating here. It's conceivable also that the phone responds to one OR the other, and that you can select which type of signalling it responds to. If you can't locate a technical manual online, or find a reference to it via google, I'd suggest calling Phillips tech support directly to ask.
2) you might try calling T-Mobile, and asking for tech support - since 1st level Customer Care folks aren't trained typically in the more esoteric technical issues. Once you get to tech support, though, you should be able to find somebody who actually knows what kind of signalling the voicemail service, and the router, use to tell the phones to turn on the VMWI. It's also conceivable that this is switchable at T-Mobile's end, and that it's either OFF, or somehow switched to one of the signalling techniques that your Phillips phone doesn't recognize.
3) Last resort: since the phone base station plugs into the WRTU54G-TM router, it's quite likely (I think) that the signal the router sends out is NOT the same as the VMWI signal the router receives from T-Mobile's voicemail server. You may want to call Linksys tech support if T-Mobile is unable to help, although I doubt this will be necessary. Also, in general, I have much better success with T-Mobile customer care than I ever had with Linksys.
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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keysgate
join:2003-03-15
Trenton, MI
·T-Mobile VoIP
 ·T-Mobile US
| Re: voice mail light I tried the t-moble tech support. All they would say, if you got the blinking blue light and studder tone, your good to go. Its just aggravating that CallVantage uses a standard that T-Moble does not support without buying thier phones.
--
"Oh my antenna gone...oh no its right down here, maybe if i wiggle it around i'll get more service" | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: voice mail light Can you post the model number of your Phillips phone? (and if there's a different number for the base station vs extension handsets, please post both). Maybe we can help track down some useful info.
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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keysgate
join:2003-03-15
Trenton, MI
·T-Mobile VoIP
·T-Mobile US
| Re: voice mail light im doing your next step, call Phillips. they said the phones use a standard that cannot be changed. I was told to reset all phones (batteries out on all handsets) and unplug base station and wait 1/2 hour. at 9:00 i will plug everything back up. but still don't understand what will change. but who knows, I will try. Phillips CD440 all one set.
--
"Oh my antenna gone...oh no its right down here, maybe if i wiggle it around i'll get more service" | |
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keysgate
join:2003-03-15
Trenton, MI | still nothing, its not a big deal--just aggravating!--i can liv with it--thanks | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: voice mail light I took a quick look at the Philips phone - certainly a good high end device, and from what I'm reading, it SHOULD work for you.
Here's a link to the manual:
»www.p4c.philips.com/files/c/cd44···_aen.pdf
Just out of curiosity: have you "activated voice mail" feature on the phone as shown in 5.8.1 of the manual?
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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edrxx
@cfmcden.com
| I've also been a customer of t-mobile since the voicestream wireless days and I've always been happy with their service. We jumped at the chance to get their home service because we hate qwest so much Overall, we've been happy, but there are a few things to consider.....
1) We have an ADT alarm system and I was told by ADT that comcast is the only approved voip that will interact with ADT...whatever that means....I was told I could try using t-mobile, but they could not guarantee that it would work.
2) TIVO also needs a traditional landline to work properly.
3) The only problem I've experienced so far has to do with dialing the 800 number of my insurance company. I've never had a problem calling this number in the past, but when I call it from the t-mobile @ home service I get a recording about the subscriber's number is not in service...I reported this to t-mobile and I was told it was likely a routing problem and they would get back to me. When they got back to me they gave me some song and dance about how they can't guarantee that 800 numbers will work on their service! I don't know if it's true or not, but it just felt like they wanted to be done with the problem and so tried to feed me that line of crap..... | |
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tlange
@comcast.net
| I have chronicled my experiences at my blog
»fromtheunknown.wordpress.com
It has been going on since 7/12/2008 and I still have no blue light and no phone service.
It seems to be a standoff between T-Mobile and Comcast! | |
|
tlange
@comcast.net | I finally have phone service. It was a matter of a T-Mobile technician having me check two UDP ports. Once I opened those ports, then I got the blue light and was able to make and receive calls... | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: Phone service works said by tlange :
I finally have phone service. It was a matter of a T-Mobile technician having me check two UDP ports. Once I opened those ports, then I got the blue light and was able to make and receive calls...
Good info. I've seen a couple of other references to this from others on other forums. I didn't have to make any changes to the defaults in my system, but it seems that a few do, and it's probably worth noting this in a FAQ of some sort for this service.
- Jon | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: fees on top of $10 / monthly With all the "taxes, fees and surcharges", it appears that I'll have about $5 in extra charges on top of the $10 monthly fee for the line. This includes things like State Sales Tax (NJ), 911 System/Emergency Response Fee, Federal Universal Service Fund, Regulatory Programs Fee. Amazing how these surcharges add up when you consider them from a percentage basis, but the actual total isn't high.
BTW: quick update -- the service continues to be excellent! I was thrilled to receive my last Verizon and AT&T bills (local and long distance respectively).
- Jon
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
| |
| | adayton
join:2008-09-27
Bay Shore, NY
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Am having same [ no blue light ] problem. was working fine until one week end night optimum cable company did some "maintenance". Now no blue light. I do not have windows firewall on. I did port forward UDP ports 500 and 4500 to the router address (0.1). still no go.... | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: Phone service works Sorry to hear about the continuing issues. Overall, my setup seems to be increasingly stable. I believe putting in the 1.00.09 version of the firmware in the WRTU54G-TM helped, but my impression is that T-Mobile is handling provisioning and network maintenance for this service better and better as well at their own locations.
Over the last few weeks the service has "just worked", to the point where I often forget that it's VoIP and not the POTS service we had here for the last 18 years... | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| I won't repeat it all here. Just to let anyone watching this thread that I've added latest experiences to the review. In short: I still see the service as a great deal.
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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| Forums » comments on review of T-Mobile VoIP |
 | »next review in page (previous review)
Review by Flip1105
UPDATED: 133 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 315 visits, last login: 91 days ago
Richmond,Fort Bend,TX
$9 per month (24 month contract)
 about 5 days
"Cheap, Cheap, Cheap and it works well. Customer service is great."
"None really. I guess the biggest it doesn't support faxing"
"Cheap and customer service is awesome."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I ordered Tmobile at home to replace ATT Call Vantage. The only issue I had was the first router they sent out was defective. They shipped me a second router out overnight and it worked great. It was all plug in play and I had to make only the security setting changes for the wireless on the router. Customer service was very helpful and I received a 135 dollar credit for bringing over another # as well as a 10 dollar credit for my troubles with the defective router. I guess the biggest draw back is it does not support faxing which I don't do a whole lot of so it wasn't a big deal.
Followup comments: | Forums » comments on review of T-Mobile VoIP |
| »next review in page (previous review)
 Review by rcbrcb
UPDATED: 275 days ago
member for 2.7 years, 956 visits, last login: 2 days ago
Chicago,Cook,IL
$10 per month (12 month contract)
about 3 days
"$10 Unlmited Calls, Easy Setup, Excellent Support Services"
"None"
"Great Service"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I have been a T-Mobile Wireless Subscriber for a few years now after coming over from AT&T/Cingular and have been VERY happy with T-Mobile Customer Service so when I heard about the new $10.00 Unlimited Home Phone Service , I wanted to give it a shot. I currently pay about $40 for home phone service through my Cable Provider, so this would be a nice savings. I called last Wednesday to order and spent about 20 minutes with a very knowlegeable sales rep who got my order all setup and processed my Number Port Request. He offered to reduce the 2 year commitment to 1 year and he also waived the $35.00 activation fee that is normally charged. There were two options for shipping, 1st was free ground shipping (5-7 working days) and a $16 2 day express option. I choose the free 5-7 day ground option and I had the equipment at my door in 2 days!
The Router Setup took about 15 minutes and all was working without a hitch.
The phone line was active within 10 minutes of powering up the router and is running on a temp # while they complete the port of my existing home #. Voicemail is the same as the VM for wireless service so that was snap to get setup. I had to only hit one button on the router to automatically send the WPA Key to my BB Curve and all of my TiVo's and the Wii found the new network right away and locked on.
So far I am VERY impressed with this service, but I will update after I have had it for awhile.....
8/6/08 Update - Have had the service running for two weeks now and couldn't be happier. The porting of my old # was done on time and worked right away, didn't even have to reboot the Router! Call quality is excellent. Bravo T-Mobile!
9/9/08 Update - I am solidly impressed with this service....I have had no issues since I began using it in late July.
2/25/09 Update - Have Zero problems with the @Home Service and am very satisfied.
Followup comments: | |
rcbrcb
Premium
join:2007-02-21
Chicago, IL | Re: 2.4 GHz Good to know, thanks for the info. I will keep an eye out for interference as I am using my BB Curve on the wireless as well. | |
| |
keysgate
join:2003-03-15
Trenton, MI
·T-Mobile VoIP
·T-Mobile US
| message waiting light Please let me know if your message waiting light works on your phone. I have new Phillips 6.0 phones that worked great with ATT CallVantage. But do not work with T-Mobile? I have seen others with problem in the forums.
--
"Oh my antenna gone...oh no its right down here, maybe if i wiggle it around i'll get more service" | |
| |
rcbrcb
Premium
join:2007-02-21
Chicago, IL | Re: message waiting light Yes, my message waiting lights do work on my phones..... | |
|
Using Hotspot
@comcast.net
|  Pros and Cons, and Answering Machines
Pros:
Price: If you already have TM cell service the price can't be beat. $50 for the router, $36 for line activation, and $10/mo for service.
Indoor wiring: After the phone company goes "dead" (usually 2-3 days after the number ports) AND after you disconnect telco at your phone box outside the house, connect the router phone jack to any jack in the house with any phone line. It works. If you don't disconnect the phone co line, you'll get a warble when you answer the phone.
Cons:
Uptime: It's hard to beat tel co on 99.999%. We've had one brief downtime in 1 month. It will go down if there is a power failure OR a cable outage (we use Comcast internet), but even during a 1 week powerfailure last year (Seattle) our cell phones continued to work.
TM and hot-spot: T-mobile has glomed this new feature onto their current offereings without really addressing it as a new line of service. So their website doesn't really gear anything to this new feature. To them, it's just another cellphone, just one that is stationary with unlimited minutes. Examples: The voicemail prompt callers get ask if you would like to page this person (????). There are no web-based features common to other VOIP offerings. It's "you get what you pay for" here.
Compatability with old phones and answering machines: If you're like us and like the stand-alone answering machine, it may not work. Our 10yo Lucent, and 3 new answering machines that I bought and returned didn't work. The problem, I believe, is that the WRTU54G router's "hangup signal" (0 voltage) is too short, so the answering machines don't realize the caller has hang up. So at the end of every message there is 10 seconds of wailing busy signal. A similar problem with the "flash" function on our Panasonic 5.8GHz phones was solved by an astute TM tech support by finding an obscure config on the phone to decrease the flash duration sensitivity from 300ms (standard) to 90ms.
Router and VOIP: the router firmware has essentially no VOIP configurations. The above hang-up problem could be fixed on other routers by changing the CPC duration (how long the voltage goes to zero). Cisco/Linksys basically took a popular router architechture and stuck VOIP on it. As of today they still haven't posted their firmware sourcecode as they are required to do under the Gnu GPL (since it's based on Linux). They say they're working on it. | |
|
tmob cust
@comcast.net
| t-mobile @home costs 
The $10 per month T-mobile@home deal can end up costing existing t-mobile customers an additional $50 per month. If you have a t-mobile family plan with 5 existing lines, T-mobile requires you to either drop one of the lines or open up a new account at $39.99 per month in order to get the @Home service. It's not what it's a cranked up to be. | |
| |
rcbrcb
Premium
join:2007-02-21
Chicago, IL | Re: t-mobile @home costs Ad what does that have to do with my review of this product? | |
| 
jupiter
join:2001-03-09
Chicago, IL
·Comcast
| @home with comcast? Am I able to get t@home if I have comcast internet? Currently I have Comcast for voice, internet and cable. It requires you to have a modem for voice as does @home. Thus, my question is would I be able to get voice service and have comcast internet work??? Do you have to have Tmobile wireless in order to get @home voice? | |
| | | | |
lrp
@ameritech.net
| Re: @home with comcast? Have you gotten the callerID on the TV to work? I had a temporary number on my @home router for a few days before my landline number was ported. During that time, there was a wrong number call to the temporary number. The callerID displayed on my TV but it hasn't done it since. T-Mobile told me that Comcast supports this but Comcast said it doesn't work. I also saw a comment on another discussion group that said it did work. ??? | |
| | | | | | | |
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Review by keysgate
UPDATED: 322 days ago
member for 6.7 years, 413 visits, last login: 28 days ago
Trenton,Wayne,MI
Contract price not specified. (24 month contract)
about 7 days
"GREAT VALUE"
"NOT ALOT OF OPTIONS"
"FOR THE MONEY---EXCELLENT!!"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I have been a customer of Att-CallVantage since it was offered nationwide. Everything has been OK until the last few months as we have started to get choppy voice. I did not try to resolve this as I knew T-Mobile was coming out with a VoIP service soon. Well, I signed up 2July2008. I am still waiting at the time of this post for my 2 numbers to be ported over. When I signed up for ATT CallVantge my numbers were ported to ATT from Ameritech (ATT now) with no problems. I am hoping for the same again. My 2-line bill was running about $62.00 a month from ATT CallVantge, and my second line was not unlimited (this added to the bill at times when I went over the 500 mins.) I am getting 2-lines unlimited from T-Mobile for $20.00 a month ($10 per line) added to my cell phone account. Be Advised! You must already have a qualifying T-moble account with them to sign up for home service. I have been a long time T-mobile user since before it was T-Moble with no coverage problems (but that is for another post). My current set-up is 1) modem. 2) ATT Dlink TA. 3) D-link Router set up as a switch (all cables plugged into LAN ports). My new set-up will be 1) modem 2) Linksys WRTU54G-TM (wireless router with home phone connection).The router holds SIMM cards, just like a cell phone. I will post again soon as my numbers are ported and get my equipment hooked up. Also give some time to try the service out. Again, this is not ATT CallVantge as it is a stripped down VoIP service. The only things that are included with this service is 1) voice mail 2) call forwarding 3) conference calling 4) call waiting 5) caller ID 6) ring tones. The only things I will miss are the e-mail & pager notifications and caller blocks.
»www.t-mobileathome.com/
I am still waiting for my numbers to be ported. I was going to wait 2 weeks before I called, but after 6 days I called customer service to make sure things were OK, Glad I did. They passed me off to their number porting center as customer service said they see no response to the port request. At the porting center I was told that they think the problem was the request went to ATT Wireless instead of ATT Landline. Because it is ATT CallVantage that I am porting from it must have confused someone. So now I am starting all over again. The Tech that was helping me went to a supervisor who handles ATT and was told it should be ATT Landline, and that the correct porting code comes up when adding the port request and that was not followed the first time. I will be back with updates!
17,JULY--got e-mail today stating that both numbers would be ported tomorrow!! Will be back after a while of testing.
Finally got everything ported and running. Call quality is better than ATT CallVantage. With CallVantage my message light on my phone would come up for voice mail. Now it does not come on when I have a message. I saw this problem posted somewhere else here in one of the forums.Maybe I can change something on the phone itself. If I don't see the router light I don't know I have a message until the stutter on the phone. I also miss the e-mails with voice mail information to cell and e-mail account from ATT. Other than that, you can't beat the service for the money. Maybe in the future these options will be available. I now have 5 lines with T-Mobile all on one bill. My bill for CallVantage was running close to $70.00 with 2 lines. Now Its $20.00! added to my Family Plan 3 line (total 5 lines). I have always liked TMobile cell service and have been a customer for 6 yrs. If any negative problems arise in the future, I will update this post. BE ADVISED! The router will cost you $50 and a activation fee of $35 for EACH line. I will make that up with a couple months of service compared to my ATT bill.
I have brand new Phillips 6.0 phones that when a message was waiting the light would flash. After switching to T_Mobile this does not work. It worked fine with ATT CallVantage. I have seen this problem with others in the forums. I wonder if you do not buy the phones offered with the service, you will have compatibility issues? Other then that, the service is fantastic, and equal or better than ATT CallVantage.
09JAN2009 UPDATE!! The voice message waiting light finally fixed. I have been living with the voice message waiting light on my phone inoperable since the start. Everyone was blaming my phone. I knew it was not the handsets as they worked fine with ATT CALLVANTAGE. Yesterday TMO called and left a message that a firmware update was sent to my LINKSYS router and to please unplug the router and then plug it back in. All of a sudden the message waiting light came on the hand set! Now the message waiting light works fine! Now I am totally happy with the service. I am saving $40 a month with 2 lines over CALLVANTAGE. This is a bare bones service, but that works for me as we were wanting a second option for 911 as having small children in the house. The call quality has been excellent.The only negative comment that I can make is you will have to reboot the router about once every 6 weeks for some reason, maybe this has been fixed also? I never had to do this with CALLVANTAGE. And I guess you do get a lot more options with ATT but you will be paying for it, and the only thing we miss is the call blocking. So I think it is true that you get what you pay for. But if you only need a line with few options, unlimited calling, you can't go wrong with TMO service. Remember, you must have TMO cell service to apply for home phone service 1 line for $10 and there are activation fees plus contract.
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Review by cer1
UPDATED: 339 days ago
member for 8.3 years, 282 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Milford,Clermont,OH
$10 per month (24 month contract)
about 5 days
"Low cost, configurable, number porting"
"Not viable if you're not already a T-Mobile Customer"
"Pretty Darn Good."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
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I became unsatisfied with my DSL ISP and phone company (Cincinnati Bell) over the years.
* DSL charges + Two POTS lines + Caller ID (1 line) and Unlimited Long Distance plus taxes ~$120/mo.
* Land line services continuously increased in cost.
* DSL Services failed to keep up with other area offerings, either in cost or performance.
This finally opened me to the idea of VOIP. I asked Cincinnati Bell if they offered DSL on lines without POTS and they declined.
Ultimately, I determined that it was just too much to pay any more and began looking at VOIP solutions...
I'm reviewing the VOIP choice here, so I'll stick to that, but it really is inseparable with the ISP portion of the equation, if costs are a motivating factor.
Since my phone company declined to supply "DSL only" service (no POTS) I needed to make a complete change if VOIP was going to make any sense at all. Actually, I'm now glad they didn't offer DSL only, because I ended up with a superior package for Internet and phone service.
Preview Summary: Time Warner Cable Business Class as an ISP. With their TeleWorker service I gained 2x download performance and almost 3x Upload performance while lowering combined costs for Landline and internet by over $50 per month. (see my other reviews for details)
Other VOIP Solutions Considered:
* Vonage - Medium cost - Router based, offers number porting
* Magic Jack - Lowest cost - PC based (no router option) and no number porting
* T-Mobile@home - Low cost - Router based, offers number porting
* Time Warner VOIP - High Cost - not a real contender. Expensive without any redeeming advantage
T-Mobile Experience:
I've been a T-Mobile Cellular customer for well over a year. I ported our Cincinnati Bell Wireless and Verizon numbers to them and they've provided what they promised satisfactorily. Since the cellular service exceeds the minimum $39/mo they require, I qualified to receive T-Mobile@home for $10 per month. (The same cost as adding a cell to my plan)
I elected to go with T-Mobile@home and port my Land-Line number from Cincinnati Bell.
Customer Support:
T-Mobile Customer Support is a mixed bag, at best. I can generally get 3 different answers to any support question, often all of them wrong. A hint: Call only during daytime weekday hours if you need a real answer or assistance. Any other time, you're getting a second stringer. This is doubly true for T-Mobile@home issues.
For Example - Number Porting. If you're looking to port your landline to T-Mobile@home, be prepared for your current provider to deny these requests a couple times before succeeding. Unfortunately the cycle time on these attempts can be 5-10 days each. These failures ultimately result in a phone call on the line to be ported, from the T-Mobile Number Porting center. These individuals seem to be the only ones that can re-instate the porting request correctly. The problem is that T-Mobile's number porting department is not accessible through other T-Mobile support channels. Consequently, you cannot get to them by calling in. You need to be home to answer the phone when they call. I succeeded after 3 tries, only when this path was used. Be sure to give instructions about the disposition of ALL your remaining service(s) in the port request. This will help streamline things.
Equipment:
I received a Linksys WRTU54G-TM router within 3 days of placing the order. This unit has WIFI (Wireless G) and a built in firewall with 4 LAN ports and is capable of 2 VOIP lines. It's a nice unit and could act as a main internet router / firewall if you don't already have one. It does not support operation as a VPN endpoint. Cost $50
I didn't have any negative experiences getting this to work. It always worked. (Almost 2 months now) I did have some minor issues after updating the router firmware, but this is typical for Linksys Products and I'm used to it by now. Suggestion: Always power cycle, load factory defaults, and power cycle again immediately after performing any firmware update.
WRTU54G-TM Configuration Notes:
I'm making these because I've heard of others having unreliability issues with this device. I think it likely that my setup might have something to do with my success, and offer those I think pertinent here. You decide.
1) WiFi is DISABLED entirely. I use another router for this purpose, and the unit may run cooler as a result.
2) The router is installed behind another, which is my primary network firewall. No special settings were needed to make this work. I chose to assign a static LAN IP address to the WRTU54G-TM WAN interface.
3) My ISP provides a STATIC PUBLIC IP, so the origin IP of the T-Mobile router never moves, either publicly or privately.
4) No devices are present on the LAN ports of the WRTU54G-TM. This further reduces it's electrical and thermal load.
5) Only 1 SIM CARD socket and Telephone Jack is in use at this time.
Other Experience:
I chose not to use the provided voicemail or call-waiting services. I want a service which leaves messages only on my answering machine (which has 4 portable handsets) Hence, these options had to be disabled by T-Mobile support. It would probably have worked on the first attempt if I had known to follow the support advice offered above, but it took 3 tries to get it right. (Again that number 3...)
The service does not work with my fax machine (as expected) but I had to try anyway. I suspect dialup internet also won't work, however bizarre it might be to need.
Here's one I didn't expect - Telemarketers. It may be a conspiracy theory, but I've apparently been placed on some marketing number list since porting to T'@home. I checked earlier this week and in 21 days I received over 100 incoming telemarketing attempts, 51 from the same telemarketer. This is about 90 times the usual quantity prior to moving.
I can only guess that Cincinnati Bell caused this as a "parting shot" in retaliation for discontinuing a relationship with them. I mention it here for two reasons.
1) I cannot exclude the possibility that T-Mobile somehow caused this.
2) T-Mobile has no provisions to block any incoming numbers, either at their level or in the router they provided (which would be the best way)
I'm having to solve this with local equipment. T-Mobile's only support solution: The National Do-Not-Call Registry. An unsatisfying response to say the least.
Compatibility:
It's worth noteing that there are issues with my local equipment correctly recognizing and working with the simulated telco line signals generated by the WRTU54G-TM Router.
Caller ID:
I have two Caller ID devices on the analog line. The Answering machine, which almost always shows caller ident and another Caller ID device which is intermittent. Interestingly, it's usually the TeleMarketer calls that go unidentified on this second Caller ID device. All calls are identified in the Router's Incoming Call Logs, which I find quite useful BTW.
Ringer Signal:
About 20% of incoming calls fail to trigger the answering machine to pickup, even though the handsets do emit an audible ring and the displays show the incoming call. The Answering machine is set to 4 rings but when this happens it doesn't pick up at all.
Unanticipated Charges:
I'm not too happy that T-Mobile chose to sock me with a one time $35 service charge to setup the service. This was not talked about when I ordered and simply "showed up" on the first month's bill. I paid it grudgingly.
Summary:
Except for the Telemarketers and a service charge, the move to T-Mobile has been as expected and continues to save money. I am happier than I was. Room for improvement in customer support, compatibility and service features.
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Review by atrayu
Posted: 361 days ago
member for 3 years, 26 visits, last login: 65 days ago
Homestead,Miami-Dade,FL
$14 per month
""Call Quality and Price""
"website, conference calling, voicemail"
"Great quality and perfect price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I have been a T-Mobile customer since 03' signed up for T-Mobile @Home week of 4thJuly08 after some initials hick ups with the number port from AT&T. I Could make calls/couldn’t receive calls number announces as not in service or fast busy signal; after a back and forth 3 hour hold and 12 hour scheduled call back @Home tech support blamed it on porting department &/or AT&T, while porting blamed it on @Home. The service has been rock solid after the initial issues during first weeks of service used Vtech i6790 instead of recommend phones the entire features of the phone function with the service
Installation was quick popped in my sim swapped @Home router for old router connected to wall jack got blue light and was good to go in less than 10 minutes
@Home line supports all the features available to T-Mobile mobile phones except for data features i.e. sms/mms/wireless web/ downloadable ringtones it does support Caller Tunes. Conference calling (3-way calling) works differently than on POTN it isn’t possible to join a new call from call waiting, when calling another party you have to wait until connected with them you just can’t "click over" while phone is still ringing to join call like with 3-way calling on POTN. Voicemail is lacking features provided by other VOIP providers (Voicemail transcribing, messages available online and manage voicemail box online) I use You Mail to provide these features. My T-Mobile hasn't been updated to differentiate @Home from cell phone service.
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Review by josh28
UPDATED: 1 year ago
member for 2 years, 22 visits, last login: 49 days ago
Glenside,Montgomery,PA
$10 per month (24 month contract)
about 1 days
"Call Quality and Price"
"Weak Website - no bells and whistle functionality"
"Great service and Great Price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I signed up for T-Mobile@Home $10 per month about 4 weeks ago. I am very happy with the service so far.
I've been a VoIP user for almost 3 years. I was a SunRocket customer (until the end) then a ViaTalk customer. I moved over to T-Mobile at the end of my ViaTalk contract. FWIW, I was never thrilled with ViaTalk (lots of echo issues). I decided to switch after I moved and ported a new number to ViaTalk. This was the last straw; incoming calls failed about 75% of the time. VT support wasn't able to solve the problem.
The T-Mobile website incorrectly informed me that I didn't have a qualifying mobile plan. But a human with customer service confirmed that I was eligible. I signed-up at my local store. I didn't port my number immediately because I wanted to solve any potential home alarm issues.
Installation was very quick and easy. I replaced my existing router with the T-Mobile-supplied router and hooked it up directly into the house wiring (the previous home owners had Comcast VoIP and appropriately wired the phone lines). I have a dial-tone at every phone jack in the house and the home alarm system works. After confirming the alarm works, I ported my existing number over to T-Mobile. It took about a week, as expected, but I never got a txt message confirming the port completion. A quick call to customer service confirmed the completed port.
Call quality is much better than ViaTalk. There are no echos, no delays and the sound is crisp and clear on both ends of the call. I'm very pleased with the call quality. Two very picky issues:
1) When receiving a call, the callerID now takes a little over two rings to display.
2) Messages left on the answering machine have a loud busy signal at the end of the message.
These are a little annoying but very, very minor.
The website is pretty weak for VoIP users but it's sufficient. T-Mobile is a cell phone company after all. Maybe they'll roll out features in the future like: call forwarding, speed dial, call blocking, etc.
I'll update my review when I get a bill for a full month.
Followup comments:
What if
@rima-tde.net | What if.... What if for another 30 USD per month, your VOIP service was truly mobile, as in cell phone mobile, and you were able to call anywhere in the US anytime on any phone?
Is that attractive? | |
| josh28
join:2007-11-11 | First Full Month As promised, I'm updating with my first full month (post number-porting) of charges.
$12.47.
The $2.48 above $9.99 include state taxes, state 911 fee and 'Regulatory Programs Fee.' | |
| | | | |
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Review by adayton
UPDATED: 1.1 years ago
member for 1.1 years, 1 visits, last login: 1.1 years ago
Bay Shore,Suffolk,NY
$10 per month
about 7 days
"PRICE"
"TECH SUPPORT"
"TWO WEEKS WITH NO SERVICE"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
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The install and port of my existing verizon number was more painless than I expected. However ten days ago after Optimum cable did some over-night "maintenance" the blue light on my linksys t-mobile router went out and I have no phone service since. spent three half hour plus sessions with t-mobile "tech support" with ZERO results. My incident has been refered to "engineering" with an expected wait time of TWO WEEKS.....meanwhile my small computer intranet works fine with the linksys t-mobile router including internet, Just no phone..... Other broadband I am considering is Verizon FIOS
One major problem I noticed is horible or no phone if you are also transmitting outbound video across the internet. even with the "high speed" cable the phone VOIP chokes...
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Review by regblank
Posted: 1.3 years ago
member for 1.3 years, 6 visits, last login: 1.2 years ago
Pomona,Los Angeles,CA
Contract price not specified.
"Amazing Price"
"MyTMobile Website Lacking Features/Information"
"Amazing Service for the Price"
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Call Quality:
Reliability:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
|
I recently made the switch to T-Mobile's $10 per month home VOIP service. I had previously been using AT&T's CallVantage VOIP for the prior 18 months. Although T-Mobile's service does not have all the bells and whistles when it comes to features, you really don't end up missing it when you're getting reliable high quality VOIP for only $10 per month.
I ported my home phone number 2 weeks ago and the service has worked great ever since.
I have the VOIP modem routed into my house wiring, which works just fine if you disconnect your external phone box from the phone company wires. I was even able to re-wire my Brinks home alarm system so that it can cutoff all the phones to take over the line. My alarm has not had any problems communicating over VOIP. I purchased a UPS battery power backup to power my cable modem and VOIP modem, which keeps my phone service operating for an additional hour if the power cuts out.
Here are the problems that I experienced so far with T-Mobile VOIP.
1) The T-Mobile sales reps and customer support are not yet up to speed when it comes to providing information on the VOIP service. When signing up for the service, the rep told me that my home phone number should port within 6 days. I went home, hooked everything up, waited 6 days, and nothing worked. I called T-Mobile support and sat on the phone for over an hour, was transferred twice, only to finally reach someone who could tell me that my number was scheduled to port 10 days after I signed up. Come on T-Mobile, all you had to do was send me an email.
2) I haven't seen anyone else post about this, but for some reason my phone rings twice as fast as it used to. In other words, the time in-between rings has dropped in half. It would not be that big of a deal, except that I want to use my home answering machine instead of the T-Mobile voice mail. My answering machine can either pick up after 4 rings or 6. I can barely get to the phone within 4 rings now, and if I set it to 6 then the T-Mobile voice mail catches it before my home answering machine. Anyone else noticing the increased ring rate?
3) The My T-Mobile website is pretty much worthless for your VOIP phone number. It is still completely geared for cell phone users, with little to no information relevant to VOIP and no VOIP features to change. The AT&T CallVantage website was much, much better.
In all, I would recommend this service to any T-Mobile customer who likes to save $$$. The benefits far outweigh the costs.
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Review by vanheve2
UPDATED: 1.3 years ago
member for 3.9 years, 248 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Richmond,Macomb,MI
Contract price not specified.
"Very Cheap, good Company"
"Their Ordering System blocks a lot of customers"
"Good deal....if you can get it."
| Web-site:
Ease of Installation:
Tech Support:
Value for money:
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I just went to a T-Mobile store and I have a Family Plan with 5 lines (Plan plus 3 add-on). Seems that since they are adding this as an additional cell line in the system, I cannot get the service.
I cannot add a 6th line to a Family Plan, so to get the Home service, I would need to start a new account of $39.99 plus $10 @Home Service, or get 2 Family Plans and put 2 Cell lines on one, and 3 cell lines on another.
So, in the end, I would end up paying $40 more a month and have 2 Family Plans.
Sounds like they need to make some changes to their billing system rules.....
Followup comments:
jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| a glitch... Today is my fourth day with T-Mobile@Home (VoIP) - unfortunately, something isn't 100% right yet. This evening is the second time the blue light on the router went out and my phone service went silent. Both times, rebooting the router fixed the problem.
I have the standard vanilla WRTU54G router that T-Mobile provides with the service.
Unfortunately, Customer Care has heard about this before it seems - a couple of times - but doesn't know what the cause is, and the wait period for Tech Support is about 20 minutes right now. So I'll wait for the call wait to go down.
Hoping it turns out to be a simple firmware upgrade, or setting on the router.
In the meantime, I have to hope it's resolved before the "buyer's remorse" period is up...
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
| |
| |
Neilathome
@comcast.net
|  Re: a glitch...
I'm having the same problem. Unfortunately, it only happened once inside the first 14 days. Now it's happened the last 2 days in a row - get up in the morning / no blue light / no dial tone.
Tech support was not helpful ("It's a new service. We're working the bugs out. etc.") other than to tell me to reboot the router which is what I would have done anyway - I just wanted to talk to them about the problem & express my displeasure.
Hopefully they'll get this fixed soon. Despite the excellent call quality and price, I do expect a level of reliability as well. | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: a glitch... Neil -
Interesting that you only experienced this once in 2 weeks, and now twice. I may be wrong, but I'm thinking this may point more to something on the provider side, that may be varying, than to something in your router. In the past, when I've had router problems, they tend to be more consistent - either in cause, or in frequency.
If it's an issue on T-Mobile's side, I suspect they'll figure it out.
If it IS a router issue, hopefully Linksys will provide a new firmware release soon. It's a shame - the firmware on low-priced home routers is incredibly basic (unless you put on something like DD-WRT): it would be nice if they could actually provide some true diagnostics or internal logging, so that we could see what's going on inside.
I mentioned this in another post: a colleague of mine is paying AT&T $25 a month for VoIP service. It has a few more bells & whistles than T-Mobile@Home currently offers, such as email notification of a message, web access to message recordings, and access to the low-cost VoIP calling from any outside phone (i.e., you can call INTO your VoIP service to then call somewhere else). But my friend pointed out that he must reboot his router (another Linksys model: quite possibly the same, but branded for AT&T) 2 to 3 times a week, and sometimes every other day -- and that this has been going on for quite a while.
I can deal with rebooting the router if I know a fix is coming, but I can't expect my wife and kids to have to deal with this.
Really hoping T-Mobile and Linksys come up with an answer soon.
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Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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Neilathome
@comcast.net
| Re: a glitch... My first thought was that maybe there was an interruption in the Internet service that the router didn't recover from, making the reboot necessary.
However, I have a Cisco IP phone connected to the T-Mobile router (via Cat 5 as opposed to the @Home phone connected via the RJ11 plug.) The Cisco phone and the Internet connection worked perfectly - only the @Home phone didn't work.
If a service interruption (either by the Internet provider or T-Mobile) is the cause, then I definitely agree that T-Mobile and/or Linksys need to improve the "recovery" process of the router. | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: a glitch... Two days since my last "outage". Curious to see if it stays connected through the night.
I was comparing notes with a friend at work today. He doesn't have this particular service and router, but does have a VoIP service with another company (don't remember which). He said that he was having a similar experience - keeping Internet, but losing his VoIP connection about 3 times a week. When it was working, it was great - but it was unstable. He wound up swapping the router with his vendor for a new one - same firmware, same model (some Linksys device), and he tells me that it has worked perfectly since.
Additionally: a T-Mobile employee who frequents another forum where I raised this question immediately suggested having T-Mobile replace the router.
Not sure that's the answer, but I'm considering this approach...
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Neil (if you're watching this thread) and anyone else:
Been another two days now -- making it 4 in all -- since my last "outage". For whatever reason, the last 4 days have been rock-solid despite the 2 brief outages in the prior 4 days.
I'm beginning to think it might have been "growing pains" on the part of T-Mobile rolling this out nationally.
Think I'm about ready to take a chance and port over my home number to this. Seems that worst risk is having to reboot the router, and it appears that even this risk may be going away.
--
Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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Neilathome
@comcast.net | Re: a glitch... I'm at five days in a row now of no reboot - I've got my fingers crossed that T-Mobile has corrected whatever the glitch may have been... | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| Re: a glitch... I'm thinking that's it...
I started with this 10 days ago, and have had no service interruptions in the last 6 days.
I felt good enough about this to call T-Mobile this afternoon and begin the process to port my land-line home number from Verizon to T-Mobile. Official word is that it may take anywhere from 6 to 10 days, but I've also heard that it often goes much faster. Time will tell.
Also called AT&T to cancel my long distance service with them. They took all the info, told me they'll send a service cancellation notice, and that it will all happen automatically when my Verizon local service is ported. AT&T person also apparently was reading from a script, and tried about 15 different times to get me to stay, get me to switch to AT&T local and long distance, keep AT&T long distance to use with T-Mobile (how??? - I didn't even ask), etc. Took some patience, but I finally have a confirmation number for the turn off request.
Also had several calls at work today from various family members at home, calling on the T-Mobile service: sound quality was superb.
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Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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Neilathome
@comcast.net
| Re: a glitch... I took the plunge immediately & had the number ported. It took six days, but I never got a notification from T-Mobile that it had been done. My wife called our house & got the T-Mobile voice mail, so then she called my cell phone to tell me that the port had been done. When I got it hooked up I found 2 voice mails from the previous day.
If you notice your land-line stop ringing, I would suggest that you call the number to see if you've now got the T-Mobile service.
My carrier (Qwest) actually left the line on for three more days, but it didn't ring as the number had gone to T-Mobile - you could call out only. So, just picking it up & hearing a dial tone is not evidence that the porting has not been done yet...
Fortunately, I did not carry long-distance service (used cell phones only for long-distance) so didn't have to hear the pleading to stay. | |
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jonazen
Be Like Water My Friend
Premium
join:2004-02-18
Princeton Junction, NJ
·T-Mobile VoIP
| My old ("legacy") phones (vtech 5.8GHz) are still all around the house, and I've placed the new vtech DECT 6 phones next to each of the old ones that are connected to Verizon.
The idea, of course, is that the new phones are sitting there ready to take over the role as soon as the number is ported.
Thanks for the heads up re: dial tone remaining after the port. I'll check periodically to see where incoming calls to my primary home number wind up ringing.
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Jon
Jonathan Strong
The Strong Group
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Neilathome
@comcast.net | Re: a glitch... No blue light - no dial tone this morning... | |
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1) When receiving a call, the callerID now takes a little ov