Digital Trends

T-Mobile HotSpot @Home

August 15th, 2007 | by Damon Brown

Setup and Use

Setup is straightforward and requires two items: the router and the phone. T-Mobile offers home wireless routers from D-Link and Linksys, two well-known brands. They look the same as your average router (sans the T-Mobile logo), but have supposedly been optimized for best Wi-Fi calling response. T-Mobile also says the sanctioned routers take up less cell battery life.

Replacing the old router with the T-Mobile router took about 15 minutes; 10 minutes were spent going through the step-by-step CD. The router will want to sync with the phone, but it doesn’t require much more than turning the phone on.

Both the D-Link and Linksys routers are $49.95 MSRP each, but they come with a full price rebate. It’s unclear how long the rebate will last, so take advantage while you can — especially if you don’t already have a router at home.

T-Mobile Wi-Fi routers by D-Link and Linksys

As far as the phone, we reviewed the Samsung t409 and found it to be standard quality. Calls seamlessly jump between wireless router and T-Mobile’s traditional cell phone towers, with a preference towards wireless connections. A submenu lists password-protected wireless connections within radius — say, at the local Starbucks or McDonalds — and the security codes can be punched in via keypad. It was pretty painless.

Both the Samsung t409 and the Nokia 6086 come with myFaves, T-Mobile’s popular program that lets people do unlimited calls to five numbers per month. 

Future Prognosis

T-Mobile has struck an innovative, affordable idea with its @Home services, but a couple wrinkles need to be ironed out. First, the cell phone selection is pretty awful; again, these are phones that, with any other plan, T-Mobile would probably be giving away for free. When asked about the paltry choices, a rep mentioned T-Mobile wanted to attempt the complex Wi-Fi/cell phone architecture with the most basic phones first. In the company’s defense, it says more phones are expected to come by early fall.

Second, the requirement of a T-Mobile router seems duplicitous, despite the routers supposedly having a special design. Many customers already have a wireless router at home. Requiring them to install yet another tech product seems unnecessary, and it would be much wiser for T-Mobile to find a way to optimize the routers they already have, rather than starting from scratch. Fortunately, the company had the forethought to do an instant rebate, but people may start complaining after the rebate expires.

Those concerns aside, T-Mobile @Home is clearly the precursor to the one-number America of our future. If you can swallow the generic phone selection, T-Mobile @Home is worth a try.

Pros:

• Solid call quality
• Easy switching from Wi-Fi to GSM network
• Nice price tag

Cons:

• Only compatible with two very average phones (at launch)
• T-Mobile recommends proprietary home router
• An additional cost on top of the traditional cell phone plan