[lug] VoIP: T-Mobile @Home

[Nate Duehr]

Bamm Visscher wrote:

> T-mobile @home and T-mobile HotSpot are two different things. If you
> have a HotSpot (wifi) enabled cell phone, you can use your cell at
> home w/o incurring any airtime charges. I don't use this. I just have
> the Panasonic phones I bought at CostCo and they work fine. 

Ahhh... thanks for the clarification, I thought they were the same 
thing.  So my comments about the cell phone's battery and all that are 
aimed at T-Mobile HotSpot, I guess.

Speaking of that service, do they also let you call from OTHER 802.11 
hot spots -- well, ones where you don't have to dance through some web 
page before you can connect to them, say at a friend's house where you 
know their SSID and encryption setup/password? -- with those phones 
without incurring airtime charges also?  (In other words, do you know if 
the phone can "remember" various 802.11 locations?)

 > The only
> oddity I see is with CID. It takes two rings before it shows up.

Sounds like they just need to modify the firmware in the router to send 
the CID modem tones sooner.  Interesting.

> Somewhat annoying.  Biggest pro is the cost. While I was getting
> bombarded w/fees from Qwest, my bill from T-mobile is $9.99 + 0.86
> (lame fee) + $1.86 (taxes) - $1.00 (10% off company deal). That
> includes free long distance.

That's pretty amazing pricing.  Does that include any of the typical 
features (apparently I can answer that it includes Caller ID), like call 
waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling, voice mail, etc?

Nate