T-mobile To Launch WiFi VoIP In The US

While Vodafone are claiming the reason for blocking VoIP on Vodafone N95 handsets is because they don't think it's good enough, t-mobile over in the US are setting up to launch their own WiFi based VoIP network:-

Quote:

T-Mobile USA Inc., the fourth largest U.S. wireless operator, is planning a national launch this summer of cellphones that can roam on Wi-Fi hotspots in homes and coffee shops, carrying calls over the Web to improve indoor reception and help customers save on monthly cellular minutes. The service, known as Hotspot at Home, has been in trial in Seattle for a few months and the carrier is ready to roll it out nationwide as early as mid-June, people familiar with the matter say. The phones that currently work with the service are models made by Nokia Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1178159 ... ts_news_us

Reply from rgower on May 03, 2007 - 01:54 PM

Perhaps T-Mobile in the UK will relax its ban on VoIP soon?

Reply from martyndavies on May 04, 2007 - 12:59 AM

If they can seamlessly handoff calls between mobile and WiFi, then that's cool stuff. I've never seen it work for real, and I would really like to.

Of course there are other ways to skin the cat, and I noticed this week that O2 are offering "500 free minutes from your favourite place". A lot of these type of solutions don't need smart WiFi routers and dual-mode handsets, but simply scrape GSM cell-id information from the SS7 traffic and then the billing system decides what you pay based on approximate location.

On Voda, it seems that outside the UK (e.g. Ireland, Germany), they're much more embracing the WiFi technology. This could of course be purely tactical, since they are very strong in the UK market, and elsewhere need to fight harder for business.

Reply from dean on May 04, 2007 - 08:38 AM

Quote:

If they can seamlessly handoff calls between mobile and WiFi, then that's cool stuff.

It's cool, but it's not really necessary or anything much more than "cool". Sure, the technology involved is fascinating, quite tricky and extremely expensive.

But in my experience people tend to be in one spot when making a call. And when you are on the move, cellular will always work better than WiFi. I wouldn't want my call continuously handing off to hotspots as I pass them. I would rather just stay cellular until I've stopped.

Reply from maartsen on Jul 11, 2007 - 06:02 AM

I have been playing with my new T-Mobile Nokia 6086 since I got it, this afternoon - it seems to hand off seamlessly, but: it has to be registered to the WiFi router you want to use, so there is no hopping. Otherwise, I am very impressed - good call quality (only a few test calls, mind), and the setup took maybe 10 minutes. I am in a rural area where cell service is marginal, and so for me this service is a Godsend. I'll be testing it all over Europe (well, Western Europe, I suppose, now ) next month, could potentially save me a bundle in roaming charges.

m

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