…and everything has been perfect. No complaints. I don’t know what else to say about it at this point. The audio quality is top-notch – better than my landline. I know that sounds like bullshit but it’s the truth. I’m pretty sure though that getting rid of DSL (and the noise it introduces to the phone lines), those goofy DSL line filters, and adding brand new DECT 6.0 phones into the equation would surely make audio quality better no matter whose service I was using.
I did have one person email me saying that they were getting constant drops in service – ie, the blue light on the router that indicates that phone service is working, would go out for them sometimes. They sent me a couple of links to some discussions where other folks are having issues too:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20706463-TMobileHome-Review~start=40
http://forums.linksys.com/linksys/board/message?board.id=VoIP_Routers&message.id=2803
Based on my experience thus far with the service and the router, I’m leaning towards the problem these folks are having being due to their internet service provider. But that’s purely a guess. Incidentally – I have not even bothered to look on TMobile’s site for new firmware and couldn’t tell you what version my router’s firmware is using. I’ll knock on wood and hope to not have to look anytime soon, as I won’t bother upgrading unless I can foresee a real benefit or am having trouble.
19 Comments
I have used T-Mobile@Home for one week thus far, thanks to your review.
The service is excellent, no missed, dropped, lost calls, excellent voice quality, the router is a good all around basic use router and the monthly cost laughably inexpensive.
Prior to T-Mobile@Home I had been cellular only without a home phone. So reducing my cellular plan from 1000 minutes to 600 minutes and adding the @Home service is the same price.
I have used T-Mobile@Home service for about 2 weeks. Everything was fine until my internet went down. It came back up but the phone service didn’t.(Internet is through Comcast) The router has a status error w006.1 Isp Error Retry. We told T-mobile customer service about it and have had a trouble ticket with them since Wed. July 23rd. No one has called us back. We keep calling them to no avail. The last rep. we talked to said that a new router wouldn’t help us and that it was a “security error”. We were the .01% that gets this problem. I have read different forums on the subject but it seems no one is getting help when it comes to this error through T-mobile.
Brenda,
Sorry to hear your experience so far. I’ve been lucky thus far.
Did you try recycling power to your cable modem and router. Unplug both of them from the outlet and then wait a full minute, then plug the router in first, wait for it to cycle on, then plug the cable modem in. Wait a minute or two and see if the blue phone light comes on. If that doesn’t work, then try it the opposite way – unplug both, wait a minute, then plug in the cable modem, wait for it to receive signal, then plug the router in.
I’m not tech support but geez, if it worked before I don’t see what it wouldn’t work now. That makes no sense that it would be a ’security error’ if it worked fine before and you didn’t change anything.
haven’t had it for as long as you, but I already like it a lot!
We just plugged the phone line into a splitter in the wall, and vois la, all the house phones worked just fine. Our only problem is that the Dish network can’t dial out, although the modem call log indicates a successful 16 second call. Most likely this is a dialing issue – when lifting the receiver, we hear 3 short beeps. Has anyone found a way around this?
Stephen, the three short beeps normally mean that you have a voicemail. Unless you have one of the DECT 6.0 phones that have the flashing voicemail indicator then the only way to know whether you have a voicemail is to either pick up the phone and hear the 3 beeps, or look for the flashing blue light on the router.
mark
Stephen… I have been eying the T-Mobile @ Home Service for a few weeks thus far. One thing that my wife and I have come to love is Caller ID on the TV screen via DirecTV. I see you have Dish. I know that it sounds like your dish receiver is having issues calling out… can you tell me though, does Caller ID work through it?
Stephen,
Have you tried looking at your receiver’s settings? You may have to change the dialing preferences.
Good info. bookmarked.
Just to Update my previous post. I have now used T-Mobile @ Home for nearly one month and remain very satisfied. During all of this time I have experienced no missed or dropped calls and my router lost connection to the telephone service on one occasion (the blue light went out and no dial tone). A quick power cycle of my router and cable modem and it was restored without incident.
Speed tests run on my cable connection prior to connecting this router ran about 9,700 Kb/s and after connecting the T-Mobile router I tested at 10,800 Kb/s, this has routinely been my approximate connection speed since.
Everything has performed as expected and as advertised. I am grateful to Mark for this blog, beings at the time I ordered my T-Mobile @ Home their own customer service reps were relatively ignorant of the service.
So I just took the plunge with the @home service. I have a question though regarding setup. I have a cable wifi modem….but TMobile recommends that the hiPort router be the wifi connection in the house, is it possible to do this with my current hardware and if not does it matter?
I have also had @Home service and it sounds great, Caller ID works through my DirecTV (After hardbooting it) , BUT the Caller ID transmits 12:00 am and no date on every call! My telephones update its time via caller ID and updates with each call… SInce @Home service ALL calls have come in at 12:00A.M. T-Mobile seems to think it is my problem…not!! Also my 3-Way calling does not work…again they say it is my problem. Even on three different phones from three different manufactures!!
DJ,
I hate to break the news to you, but T-Mobile is correct, it’s not on their end. My phone’s caller ID records the time/date of calls received correctly.
Are you using DECT 6 phones? I have no proof/technical knowledge of phones but I really think it’s best to bite the bullet and buy either the VTECH phone that T-Mobile recommends, or something equivalent that is DECT 6. Most of the problems people report, after asking further it turns out they are using some old 2.4ghz phone or something like that. Not saying that’s what you’re using.
mark
Marks last blog post..The Dreaded T-Mobile@Home ‘Blue Light Went Out’ Dropped Service Problem and Solution?
My T-Mobile Hi-port’s telephone service (indicated by the blue light) goes out at least once a day. Power-recycling the cable modem and router solves the problem but it is irritating and disruptive to do this every day.
The cable modem and router work fine otherwise. When T-Mobile landline seervice goes down, I can surf the web, send and receive emails and use Skype on the same network with no problems. So process of elimination tells me the issue is somewhere other than in my network or ISP.
DJ, how did you go about “hard wiring” to your DirectTV? I have the Tmobile@home and thought I had to give up the on screen call id feature of Direct TV. Thanks
How do I link/hook the tmobile home phone into the whole home telephone wired system?
Lynn,
Read through all of the comments for the various posts (just click on the Tmobile@Home category up at the upper-right of this page). Somewhere in one of the post comments I recall someone explaining how to do it.
mark
Marks last blog post..Firmware Update for T-Mobile@Home Router WRTU54G-TM Now Available
quote: My T-Mobile Hi-port’s telephone service (indicated by the blue light) goes out at least once a day. Power-recycling the cable modem and router solves the problem but it is irritating and disruptive to do this every day.
The cable modem and router work fine otherwise. When T-Mobile landline seervice goes down, I can surf the web, send and receive emails and use Skype on the same network with no problems. So process of elimination tells me the issue is somewhere other than in my network or ISP.
: end quote
We just got this service 3 weeks ago…no issues until this week. Router drops off everyday, hard booting does work but very aggravating and not acceptable. Have you had any additional issues? How did you fix it? I’ve been on the phone with TMobile and Linksys – no help…
Tammy,
See my most recent post where I give my perspective on the @Home service after using it for a full year. Make sure to read the updates down at the bottom as my perspective on it in the end is a bit better than my anger in the initial post indicates. Make sure to run the speed and quality of service tests on your broadband server to isolate whether the issue is with them or with @Home. Links are in the post.
mark