T-Mobile HotSpot @Home (Modern Phone part 2/3)
Tech Tips February 4th, 2008The first post in this series dealt with Grand Central. Let me first follow-up on that with some clarification on how I utilize the forwarding. Until I decide to completely sell out to GC (I’m getting close), I like people to call my same ol’ mobile number and forward that through GC, then back to that number (in addition to other phones). If you decide to take that approach, keep the following in mind:
- Set the “busy”, “no reply”, and “unreachable” calls to forward to GC- don’t just set “all calls”
- Set the “no reply” time to 5 or 10 seconds; anything longer will have your callers listening to rings for more than 30 seconds before they can finally leave you a message
- Your phone will now ring twice in a row
- Your phone company will take minutes off your account for forwarding- and you could even potentially end up with a double charge
As you can see, this isn’t for everyone. But until I find out the full details of pricing and such, I’m just a little hesitant to lock in and announce to the world that I have a new permanent number.
Okay, on to T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service. The phones that work with the service have wi-fi built-in, and allow you to make free, unlimited calls over most wi-fi connections, including free access to any T-Mobile HotSpot (i.e. Starbucks). But they also work just like a regular mobile when you’re not under a cloud of wi-fi goodness. This has two really cool benefits:
Go where mobile can’t
Basements, skyscrapers, stairwells. We’ve had plenty of mobile phone near-dead spots in our various apartments. But I almost always have a decent internet connection.
Go where mobile can’t afford to
This was the main reason I picked up one of these phones before we headed to Mexico. Combining Grand Central with this phone allowed people to call my same ol’ number (AT&T), it would forward to GC, and GC would pass it off to my HotSpot @Home phone. Voila! Free calls from south of the border without lugging along a Vonage phone or asking people to call my Skype number.
Before you rush out and buy one, let me just say that the service is very obviously in its infancy. Call quality can get iffy and the phone doesn’t always automatically connect to my various saved wi-fi networks.
That wraps up part 2. Our last stop will be an overview of the booming market of voice-to-text transcription services.
Popularity: 21% [?]
February 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Very cool! So is this a VoIP service that works through a mobile phone’s wifi even if not T-Mobile? Or do you have 2 phones?
Great telephony hacks. Can’t wait for part 3.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:10 am
@sterling- nah, unfortunately this requires a special T-Mobile phone (two different models are available). So yes, currently I do have two phones. My AT&T is my main phone. Now that we’re not in Mexico, the T-mobile phone usually stays at home and my wife and I both use it; free minutes, and the calls are clearer than what our AT&T phones give us.
The cost is justified because I’m actually piggy-backing the T-Mobile phone on a friend’s “family” plan, and have been able to cut my Cingular plan down a level (actually my assistant did that for me, but that’s a story for next Wednesday…
).
Eventually I’d like to simplify and settle on just one, but right now I’m in exploration mode. Ideally AT&T will eventually provide a similar service.