T-Mobile@Home to launch on June 27?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 20th 2007 9:01PM
posted Jun 20th 2007 9:01PM
It's been a minute or two in the making, but it looks like T-Mobile's UMA rollout -- the first for a national US carrier -- could finally be around the corner. Boy Genius Report has come across some pretty authentic-looking documents detailing the "@Home" service launch, suggesting that it'll roll out next Wednesday, June 27 (probably for the best they don't try it two days later) with the Nokia 6086 and Samsung t409 doing duty as the launch handsets. Here's where it gets good, though: the marketing campaign will apparently involve commercials featuring some bathrobe-clad dude named Jimmy. T-Mobile's really taking Jimmy to heart, asking its in-store reps to dress up in Jimmy's bathrobe's for the few days after @Home's launch, culminating in a July 3 contest where eleven stores across the country offer free @Home phones, routers, and service to the first 100 similarly dressed customers. This should be... interesting.Read - part 1
Read - part 2
hmm
Yeah hmm...
Don't f^cking Jimmy me, Jules! I can't be Jimmied!
Really, I had no clue it was July right now!
correction:Cincinnati Bell offered the UMA last month for $10 under the name "CB Home Run",here is the link http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070618/BIZ01/706180314
I'm glad they'll have something other than the current Nokia 6136 and Samsung t709. Does anybody know if they'll even offer these? I never got my hands on a 6136 but it seemed like a decent phone, certainly as good as any of the ones above. The Sammy isn't bad but it could use some work. I'm pretty geeked about this since my apartment doesn't have shit for cell reception no matter what carrier you're on.
HA! @Home reminds me of what TCI was calling their broadband service. TCI @Home.
http://www.theonlyphoneyouneed.com/
As long as you have a UMA GAN capable mobile phone, any WiFi router will work. You just have to sign up with T-Mobile to enable the service.
They're been running this pilot for a while in Seattle.
You can learn about the tech behind this on http://www.umatoday.com/
Until I can use this service internationally, I'm not signing up. I'd like to not have to pay exorbitant roaming charges in other countries, and this seems to be a good way to do so; if they didn't disable international usage, that is.
this been going on in seattle for awhile. I would've gotten this, but I don't like those two phones. I think T-Mobile should make all their phones WiFi enabled, so there would be more phone selections to choose from. Shouldn't the SDA, MDA, and Wing be able to use it because they have WiFi too? I think WiFi calling is a cool idea, but WiFi drains my phone's battery life too fast.
I agree. I wouldn't mind using UMA, but I'm a smartphone user. I'll never go back. It seems logical that they would release a ROM update, or even an app that would enable UMA on my not-so-shiny but brand new wi-fi-equipped Wing.
I agree as well, you would think the UMA functionality lies in the software to handle it. If the phone has WiFi already, I don't see why they cant come out with update to enable it. Considering I just paid $350 for this thing.
There's a lot of confusion about call plans and whether you need to sign up for this to work. You don't have to do anything to your account to use UMA; all you need is the phone (and a valid T-Mobile SIM card).
When you're connected through WiFi, it uses the same call plan and minutes you would normally be using. The $20 unlimited plan they'll be offering is just an add-on to your existing plan to give you unlimited calling through WiFi. You don't need it or any other plan modification to use UMA.
As far as whether other WiFi-enabled devices (MDA, SDA, Wing, etc.) will be able to do UMA, it seems logical but there hasn't been any confirmation so far. The obvious solution would be a simple firmware update.
To Novey: Yes, WiFi does drain the battery faster. But, according to T-Mobile's marketing materials (see PDF below), the T-Mobile branded @Home routers are supposedly optimized to increase battery life. It sounds like bullshit to me since the devices not only look identical to their non-T-Mobile counterparts, they have the same model numbers. Draw your own conclusions.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/Documents/hotspot@home-routers.pdf
The floor rep at a T-Mobile store in SF said that the Blackberry Curve 8320 would be included as one of these phones that uses this service, but might not come out right away - they're coming out with one Samsung and one Nokia phone first.