T-mobile wifi phone

I thought the @home allowed you to roam WiFi at T-Mobile hotspots, and it always worked at your registered (home) WiFi. That's not what the name implies, but yours working would suggest that it is true.

I did some tests. Without having @home, I can phone from wifi and use t-mobile hotspots. I gather they are just tossing in the hotspot feature with blackberry internet (i.e. over cellular). The phone is acting as a proxy of sorts, that is, the ip location from where you are surfing is not related to the wifi gateway. This might be a feature since it may make it harder to hack your PC over a wifi connection.

What I can't get to work is the wifi blackberry as a tethered modem, at least using the technique I used with my old blackberry. I'm sure somebody will figure this out. I didn't try bluetooth data. [I'm not a fan that technique is it doesn't charge the phone power.]

What I guess is paying the @home fee lets you talk all you want off the meter if using wifi. I suppose that would let you get a cheaper (less minutes) plan. Its not for me since airtime is pretty cheap (I grandfathered in on the 1500 minute anytime plane).

I forgot to mention that you can set up the phone not to use the cellular service. That is how I am certain the phone call I did went out over wifi.

Believe it or not, there are places in the US where you can get wifi but not cellular, so this will come in handy.

My home being one of them ;-) Cellular is marginal here. I would like to have the WiFi option, but T-Mobile doesn't offer subscriptions here, although they do roam onto Edge Wireless, the local carrier.

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

I do it somewhat differently. I have a Verizon XV6700 Windoze Mobile Phone/PDA with Wi-Fi. There are wi-fi access points at home, office, at most of my customers, and some places where I lurk. I use Skype on my desktops, laptops, and PDA. One the PDA, I only use it for outgoing calls. Skype Out is about 2 cents per minute to a POTS phone. Free to other Skype users, which include most of my customers. Currently, about 90% of my minutes are via Verizon cellular. However, my use of Skype is slowly increasing.

What's nice about this is that arrangement is that it actually works and doesn't require a "plan" or other tie in to the wireless carrier. If I change instruments to a VoIP wireless phone, it still works, with no contract, rebates, or complications.

The down side is that the voice quality sucks. I did some minor testing and found that the 416MHz X-Scale processor in the PDA is seriously overloaded. I wouldn't expect anything better from Windoze. If I don't clear up RAM (unload running applications) before I make a call, then it sounds really bad. That's why I use it only for outgoing calls. I wouldn't have a chance to clear loaded programs before taking an incoming call.

Incidentally, what I find fascinating is that all the various cellular carriers were previously busy removing Wi-Fi from their subsidized cell phones. There were various excuses, but the obvious reason is that wi-fi constitutes some potential competition to cellular. Then, along came the iPhone with built in Wi-Fi and now they're all scrambling to release rehashed phones that include Wi-Fi. My, how things change overnight.

I think one of the Korean vendors beat apple to the use of wifi in a phone.

I don't follow the comment about carriers removing wifi from their phones. You mean wifi phones were on the market, then removed, then returned?

I've had some issues with Verizon and dumped them about 2 years ago. The biggest annoyance was delayed voicemail. This happened twice. Once the situation was very weird since I was trying to meet up with someone at an event, hit a dead spot I guess, and ended up meeting that person by chance after the event. Her voice mail wasn't on my phone and didn't show up until the next day. Verizon tech support just reads off a script, so they were useless.

I will admit Verizon has the most cell sites. You get much more coverage than with T-mobile and the GSM partners. However, one thing I learned since switching is the digital features of GSM work as you roam. CDMA is kind of odd. They have something called "extended digital". This lets you do roam with voice service. In some places, the digital services don't work. Some places you needed to phone yourself to check if you have voicemail. With GSM, I gather the systems differences are less, and all the digital features I used worked.

T-mobile works out to be 2.6 cents a minute, but I never use all my minutes, and they don't have roll over.

I think that means your option would be to get a T-mobile number as close to home as possible, the use roaming and wifi at home. If most of your callers are cellular users, the out of town phone number isn't a big deal.

I quit using my landline when I got T-mobile. Technically I still have a landline, but I don't use it. I dropped long distance from the line, which saves about $100 a year. [No more of those stupid bay area message unit charges either.] I could save another $100 or so if I get digital only DSL from Speakeasy. However, I 'm not quite there yet. There is something about being able to dial 911 and have it work. '-)

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

UTstarcom. That's who made the phone I'm using.

No. Last year, Verizon was selling 2 PDA phones with wi-fi. As of a few months ago, they had replaced the two with wi-fi, with other vendors models, that didn't have wi-fi. At this time, I don't think they have any PDA phones with wi-fi. It's not even listed as a feature of their phones on their web pile:

For example, my XV6700 is still listed, but there's no mention of wi-fi anywhere under "features":

There is a one line buried under "capabilities". The other phones are Motorola Q variations, Blackberries, and Palm 650/700 PDA phones, none of which have wi-fi. See a pattern?

I had this happen about a year ago. I would get voicemail hours after the message was left. However, I haven't seen it since.

Wifi isn't quite as essential in a phone that has EDVO. The claim, and I suspect is it el torro crappo, that RIM is pushing wifi because HSDPA is too power hungry. So wifi is nice if you have a 2.5G network.

It's really sad that Verizon is still messing up voicemail, since I was having that problem over two years ago.

All these cellular vendors have their pluses and minuses. You just pick the one with the warts you can stand.

snipped-for-privacy@sushi.com hath wroth:

From Verizon, EVDO will cost me $60/month and download at perhaps

600Kbits/sec on a good day. Wi-Fi costs me zero and downloads as fast as the DSL or cable modem can deliver.

Wi-Fi is also fairly power hungry. I have to turn off the Wi-Fi section of my phone when it's not being used. My battery lasts about

3 days if I don't use Wi-Fi. If I run it for an hour, it's dead in about 8 hours. I haven't bothered to actually measure the current drain, but judging by the battery life, it's substantial. No clue if the iPhone of Blackberry 8820 is any better.

Please re-read what I wrote. I had the problem about a year ago, not since. I get about 4 voice mails per day (during the week) so I would know if there's a problem. It's fixed.

Yep. I have plenty of complaints about Verizon, but they are the lesser of the available evils.