NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Bob Frankston <Bob2-19-0501 () bobf frankston com>
Date: December 15, 2006 3:41:39 PM JST
To: dave () farber net, ip () v2 listbox com
Cc: "'Glenn Fleishman'" <glenn () glennf com>
Subject: RE: [IP] NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial

Neat trick -- you get someone to pay for 3000 minutes of calls and  
then get
them to pay another $20 to use other people's Wi-Fi transport to  
reach the
PSTN? That takes gall. But a neat trick if you can confuse people into
thinking they something for free while really paying more.

Am I missing something or is it sufficient to sprinkle a little Wi-Fi on
things to make the brain go into neutral. But that's also the point of
http://www.frankston.com/?name=WiFiEdge -- instead of thinking about
connectivity cities are fixated on the magic of Wi-Fi and missing the  
point
that the particulars of the transport should no longer matter.

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Friday, December 15, 2006 00:51
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial



Begin forwarded message:

From: Kurt Albershardt <kurt () nv net>
Date: December 15, 2006 10:27:50 AM JST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: NY Times coverage of T-Mobile dual mode phone trial

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/14/technology/14basics.html>


December 14, 2006
Marrying the Cellphone to Cheap Internet Calling
By GLENN FLEISHMAN
SEATTLE

MATTHEW MILLER wanted to cut the cost of his cellphone plan. He and
his wife, Dayna, had regularly exceeded their 2,000-minute-per-month
T-Mobile family plan, incurring extra-use charges that reached $60
some months.

With her home business and his daily commute of two and a half hours
to his job in Seattle, they decided this year to move to the maximum
3,000-minute plan. They spend another $20 a month for unlimited long-
distance calling on their landline.

Mr. Miller, a columnist for Geek.com and ZDNet in his spare time, was
therefore not surprised when T-Mobile asked the couple to join an
early local test of a service that combines the ubiquity of cellular
networks with the flat pricing for unlimited calls available with
some Internet-based phone services.

The new service, HotSpot@Home, allows a subscriber to place calls
from a mobile phone using cellular and Wi-Fi networks, whether a home
wireless network or a hot spot operated by T-Mobile.

In my own testing, I found the service a reasonable first draft of
what could become a reliable alternative to both all-cellular
networks and an emerging set of Wi-Fi-only phones. The marriage might
even save money - for both T-Mobile and its subscribers. Carrying
calls over Wi-Fi networks costs the company as little as 20 percent
of the expense of calls handled on a cellular network.

All calls originating on a Wi-Fi network to numbers in the United
States are included in a monthly fee of $20 for a primary phone and
$5 for additional phones in a family plan. The Wi-Fi plan must be
coupled with a traditional voice cellular service plan of at least
$40 a month.

Although T-Mobile introduced the service in late October, after the
tests in which the Millers took part, the company allows subscribers
to sign up only in the Seattle-Tacoma region, and only at corporate
stores. The service can be used nationwide, however.

...







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