11/02/2008 NOTE: After I originally wrote this post a few months ago, T-Mobile linked to it from their t-mobileathome.com site. This has resulted in a huge number of emails/comments on the posts I’ve written about the service. While I appreciate T-Mobile linking to my blog, as all the links/hits I get drives traffic to my site and the small (very small) amount of money I make from the clicked-on ads and such help defray server costs, I want to make it clear that I have no affiliation with T-Mobile whatsoever and receive nothing from them (and never have), other than the services I’ve paid for.
I usually don’t mix personal posts on this blog, but it’s the only blog I have right now going, and well, this is a topic that people are really interested in it seems. There are very few folks who have actually signed up for the new Tmobile@Home service (I’m guessing this because so few people have info on the web about it). So, in the interest of sharing info back to the web community….here I go…
Yesterday afternoon I went to my local Tmobile store to sign up for the @Home service. I am currently paying over $60 per month for my Verizon landline, so I figured if I could get 99% up-time from this new @Home service for just $10 per month, it would be worth it. So I signed up, which took a while because, as I soon found out after saying to the sales guy, “Sign me up!”, that I in fact was the first person at that store to sign up for the service.
I have had Tmobile cell service for about 1.5 years now and have liked the service. The website is great and they seem to be on the up-and-up, so I took a calculated risk.
So, here’s the scoop:
Costs:
~$35 activation fee for the new phone number/line
My sales rep failed to mention this fee, which pisses me off but, quite frankly, I would have agreed to it anyway.
~$50 for a LinkSys router. I’ll post more details on the router later, but that is the one thing about the @Home service that there is a good bit of info on the net on. I was using a D-Link Wireless router that had ‘Draft N’ status, so downgrading from the 802.11N to 802.11G was something I was disappointed with. Supposedly you can just connect both routers (and I have a 4-port switch laying around doing nothing to facilitate this) or chain them to the broadband source, but quite frankly I didn’t want to mess around with that. At least not during this ‘trial’ period. And besides, my wife is the only one who uses the wireless currently at my house and she’s using Ubuntu on her laptop with a wireless G card, so the N was going to waste anyway. The range of the D-Link wasn’t all that great either, so I figured I’d go with the LinkSys. Speeds seem no different to her after the switch. I can tell you that the ’strength’ level of the wireless signal coming from the D-Link was ~34% usually, whereas the signal level from the Tmobile Linksys was just over 50% yesterday. So that was better at least.
The router certainly is much more aesthetically pleasing too : ) It has lots of lights and is cool-looking, for what that’s worth (nothing). I’ve been running it since yesterday and no drops, no problems. It has 4 ethernet ports and 2 landline ports for you to hookup your phones. Any phone can be hooked up to it (well, I suppose rotary phones can’t). I hooked up an old wireless phone base/handset that I had in my basement to it (more about why below) and it worked flawlessly. Sound quality was great and it works just like a regular phone - when you pick it up you even hear a dial-tone like a regular landline phone. I walked upstairs to my bedroom, which is at the farthest point in my house from the router, which is in my new ‘family room’ (that’s code for our recently finished basement!), and the sound quality and volume level did not change. I was worried about that and was pleasantly surprised.
Some folks on the Broadband Reports website forum, which to date is the only decent source of info I could find about this service prior to buying it, have asked me to check if the outgoing caller ID lists my name when I call another landline from the @Home phone. I’ll try that tonight and report back with a new post here.
My current landline is with Verizon, and I use Verizon DSL. I have loved the DSL (I had Comcast broadband for a couple of years, which sucked - major lag/variance in bandwidth) and have had a solid connection with no downtime for about 5 years now. 1.5mb down steady. Maybe more now, haven’t checked in a while. I am going to run some tests using the @Home service and downloading a torrent or other large file at the same time to see how things are affected. If anyone has any tips/suggestions on how to best run some valid ‘tests’ I’d love to hear them.
Well, so far I’m happy. But I’ll tell you this: I haven’t initiated the porting of my current landline number yet. I’m gonna wait one more day then start the process, which supposedly takes at least 6 days, if not 10.
My main hurdle at this point is my telephones. I have 3 ‘levels’ to my house - the basement, main floor, and upstairs. Since the basement was recently finished, I didn’t get a new phone for down there so I’ve been ‘phoneless’ down there from a landline perspective. In our living room is a great Motorla wireless base/handset that my wife won in some contest, and upstairs is a piece of garbage $9 phone. My problem is this: my @Home router is on my computer desk in my basement. I am not going to re-rig phone lines around so that I can plug the Motorola from my living room into the router, and since I want to get a new phone base with 2 handsets anyway so all 3 floors can be covered, I’m going to stop at the Tmobile store to investigate the VTech phones they are selling. IIRC, for about $100 I can get the base and 2 handsets. The key concer/question for me is this: if I set the base up on my PC desk in the basement, no one will be able to see whether a new voicemail has arrived unless the handsets have some sort of flashing indicator on them. Hopefully they do. If not, I’ll have to find a set of phones that do work that way. And if that won’t work, I’ll re-think the setup of the @Home wiring. I can do it, I’m just too busy to do that these days. Also, allegedly, TMobile claims that the VTECH phones they are recommending/selling also include some special features/buttons specific to the @Home service. So, we’ll see. I’ll report back.
UPDATE 07.17.08: I’m noticing that many folks are coming directly to this post via the TMobile@Home website (which has linked directly to this post).
Please note that I have added some more posts regarding the @home service. Click here to view them.
62 Comments
Followup:
Someone had asked me whether, when calling another landline from the @Home phone, whether my name shows up in the receiving phone’s caller ID - the answer is no, it does not. I called my existing phone line from my @home phone and ‘UNKNOWN NAME’ and my @home number showed up in the CID.
Thank you for the thorough and promising review of the T-Mobile@Home. I was led here from DSLreports and could not find any first hand accounts of this new service elsewhere.
I have been with T-Mobile over 5 years and very pleased with the service they provide. On three occasions I have written management letters commending their employees or service and only once a complaint. The complaint was in fact due to an error on their part for which they apologized then discounted my next handset $100 for the mistake. (Years ago when they were selling the V3 RAZR for around $149)
I hope you continue to be satisfied and keep us updated.
You can use a pigtail from the RJ11 jack to drive 2 phones where the unit is. Your regular phone in the basement, and a base for a multi-phone wireless unit for the rest of the house. Just fyi.
If you haven’t ported your number are you on a demo number? That might also be a reason why your caller ID info is not coming through.
Just a thought.
Thanks for the info. I am also interested in this product by Tmobile. I have been a customer for about 5 years and would love to use the landline service that they are now offering. I also have verizon and dsl. Will you be discontinuing all of your services with verizon or do you still need the internet service (DSL)? I’m confused on how you can still keep your number but cancel your service with verizon and replace it with Tmobile if most of the telephone lines are serviced by Verizon. Can you shed some more light on this for me?
Jon: thanks for the tip, but what I’m trying to do is get rid of my landline phone completely and switch over to the @Home service.
mark
Scott,
Yes - I’m on a ‘temporary’ number. I just initiated the porting process tonight but for now I’m on a temp number still. I don’t really care if my name doesn’t show up on other people’s phones when I call. Someone on broadbandreports had asked me about it, hence why I posted the result.
Circuit City sells the V-Tech phones!
John -
Can you provide a link to verify this? I did a search on Circuit City for VTECH and didn’t turn up the same model DECT 6 phone that Tmobile is selling:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ccd/Search.do?c=1&searchType=user&keyword=vtech&searchSection=All&go.x=0&go.y=0
I am in need of an extra handset. VTECH is selling em direct with high shipping costs, but they seem to be the only one selling them. There is a guy on ebay selling refurbished sets (base + phone) for around the same price. Tmobile isn’t selling extra handsets, which is quite ridiculous in my opinion. I would think most folks these days have a need for more than just 2 phones!
mark
I’m now using the @Home service and hooked it up to a set of AT&T DECT 6.0 phones that I got from Sams Club.
http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=390861
$114.58 for the base unit and four additional handsets (five handsets total.) It’s worked flawlessly so far - great sound and excellent range on the phones. The handsets will show “XX Missed Calls” and “New Voice Mail” on the display - no flashing light, but you can tell if you’ve got a message by looking at any handset.
Oddly, you only get this indication if you use the T-Mobile voice mail system. If you use the answering machine built into the base, there is no indication of messages on the extensions.
I was also impressed with these phones in that if you enter a number into the Directory on any handset, it will be available on all of the handsets. (I know - this is probably common, but my old phones didn’t have this feature - I was very pleased not to have to enter all the numbers five times…)
Thanks for the tip Neil.
I was wondering if any of the non-Tmobile branded DECT6 phones would be able to work with Tmobile’s voicemail by showing an indication that a new voicemail has been left.
That’s strange that you would only get the indicator for the Tmobile voicemail. Perhaps the indication is being ‘pushed’ from the router, via the SIM/VM system, somehow? I have no idea.
mark
Just signed up for the service myself and appreciate your thread.
Will the wireless router operate dual mode in both 802.11b and g (I have some older PCs with only b cards)? There is soo… little info available on their “HiPort”.
I’m especially interested in voice degredation if the pipe gets full - currently I have Cablevisions home VoIP service and I believe their router prioritizes the voice traffic, but with a third part VoIP, there wouldn’t be the same QOS.
As for home phone choices, I thrilled with the quality of my GE Fusion Dect phone and love using it as a blue tooth handset as well. I’ll let everyone know if it recognizes the voice-mail waiting indicator like it does today.
All this and Verizon finally, finally, finally pulled the FIOS cable outside my front door. T-Mobile has 20 days to convince me…
Hi Paul,
I haven’t specifically checked it but I would be *shocked* if it didn’t operate in dual mode. Every router I’ve used in the past did, and after all this is a LinkSys router (simply branded with Tmobile on it) so without checking I’d say it would.
As for voice degradation - I have no idea. Tmobile says it will give the VOIP the higher priority to bandwidth. Only time/experience will tell.
PLEASE let me/us know if your GE phone has an easily visible voicemail waiting indicator that works with @home. I would rather buy a DECT 6 phone set that includes more than just the one handset that Tmobile’s VTECH set is selling. I have some time to return it : )
Lastly - I believe the return period for the Tmobile@Home service (and phones) is 14 days, not 20.
mark
In the setup for the router, it gives you choices of wireless networks - Disabled / B Only / G Only / Mixed.
I have mine set up as Mixed as I also have both B & G devices and all are working great.
I want to let all know that I have had tmobile service for over 8 years since they were voicestream. Have had the @home service for two weeks now and I am very pleased. All fees associated with the service such as the activation fee and router were told to me up front which was no surprise if you have cell service you know they charge an activation fee. Range of all phones with this service is stellar I can go clear to my mailbox which is in a central location about 50 feet away from my actual home. The mailbox is the limit though the quality starts to break up there. Service itself is great no problems what so ever. The only little annoying thing is that I have to dial the area code as well when dialing any number even my next door neighbor, but for what I am saving I could care less. Fax machine and security system work great on the @home service as well. I used to have cox digital phone serve with the same features and was paying $51.95 a month, not anymoore. Yes there is a two year contract when you sign up for the service with tmobile but since I have had absolutely no problems with them I was happy to sign a contract. Also you can dial 611 from your landline device and get tmobile customer care
I have @home service and I’m very pleased with the quality. I purchased Panasonic 6.0 DECT phones from Sam’s Club when I picked up the router. The phones work perfect with the service. They have a flashing voice mail indicator on each handset. The range of the phone is better than I expected.
I’d like to share a tip I’ve been using since the good old ISDN days…
Connect a CAT5 wire from the back of port 1 on your T-Mobile router to the local phone company “access point” outside your house. This is typically a gray box on the side of your place. Of course, you’ll be disconnecting the local phone company’s connection and plugging yours instead. This will feed ALL the phone jacks in your entire house.
In essence your internet connection and T-Mobile are the new local providers! My house is wired for two phone lines. One for upstairs and one for downstairs. So now I’m contemplating adding a second T-Mobile @ home line to feed the upstairs phones for the teenager…
The router is very versatile. My next project is to move it behind, instead of in front, of my Astaro security gateway.
To JCC
T-Mobile@home
Dont cancel ur verizon landline before u port ur number to @home service. Eventhough u might overlap the 2 services together, once u cancel landline before u port number, the number is cancelled as well. Just fyi, happened to a friend of mine.
I have found that it is not necessary to connect the router port 1 to the local phone company “access point” outside the house. If you disconnect the phone company from the “access point” (and label it appropriately so no one reconnects it) you can connect the port 1 of the router to any phone jack in the house. Connect the router to the phone jack using regular phone cable where it is most convenient inside the house. Since all of the phone jacks are wired in parallel, it does not matter which one is being driven by the phone service provider. This is great because you can keep all your regular phones (wired or wireless) with the new service.
Mark,
Here is a link to VTech “Accessory Handset for DS3111 and TM3111 with Caller ID and Handset Speakerphone” with the voice mail indicator on the handset for $29.95. from VTech.’s website.
http://www.vtechphones.com/vtechui/store/dsp_product.cfm?itemID=3744
OR
http://tinyurl.com/5h9d24
John
Thanks John - yeah, I just ordered one from VTECH yesterday. Kinda sucks though because the shipping is really high (IIRC it was like $42 total shipped). There is a guy on ebay selling refurb handset/base combos for $29.95 which is probably a better deal. I didn’t find that until after I ordered the VTECH though. I find it really odd that no one else is selling these phones new but VTECH themselves.
mark
Mark, I suppose they are a bit new for the online retailers yet. I am preparing to log in this evening and order the T-Mobile@Home service myself… any major issues or deal breakers surfaced yet?
John
I have Panasonic 2.4 Ghz phone (from Sams club) which I purchased ~6-8 months ago — KX-TG3031S. I plugged it in and volla — I get a blinking notification on each of the 4 handsets when a voice mail arrives. Only downsides: The base does not show this notificaiton, and the notification shows ~2-4 minutes after the voice mail has been left. But according to TMO site (https://support.t-mobile.com/knowbase/root/public/tm23449.htm#12) the blue-light will also start blinking if there is a VM.
Now I’m still trying to find out how the Call Waiting works. I get a text on the phone LCD “—- WAITING —–” when someone is calling but no sound/beep indication — this irritates me a little. But hopefully this is something they can fix.
Malhar,
I’m surprised that a 2.4ghz phone works well, since I think this system is really designed to be used with DECT 6.0 phones. For what it’s worth though - the voicemail indicators take 2 to 4 minutes on my vtech phones too before they light up, which is a bit annoying if you ‘just miss’ a voicemail or yearn for the days of being able to screen calls by listening in on the first few seconds of a recording, ala, “Hey! You There? If so, pickup!” : )
mark
David,
I have not been able to get the fax to work on @home. Please post if you have any suggestions as to what settings should be used.
vic
John-
I use ATT for my land phone and internet. Could you make a suggestion on options for the internet supplier?
Thanks
Candyce,
I wrote a post recently that discusses my experience with Verizon DSL and the switch to Comcast broadband:
http://elearninglive.com/wordpress/?p=56
In a nutshell…..for me, the Comcast broadband is so much faster than the DSL line, and is only $1 more per month over the DSL.
mark
Vic,
Everything I’ve read states that fax is not supported by @home. (Sorry…)
In related news, the last 2 mornings in a row I’ve found that the “blue light” on the router showing @home phone service was not lit. Checked the phones & there was no dial tone. This is the second & third times it has happened so far in the two and 1/2 weeks I’ve had the service. (Yes, it only happened once in the first 14 days, so I’m stuck with this for 2 years unless I want to pay the penalty.)
It’s easily corrected by unplugging the router for a few seconds & plugging it back in - but this still seems like a pain in the *** to have to do this. Has anyone else had this problem? (T-Mobile says - it’s a new service - we’re working out the bugs - blah, blah, blah…)
Neil
Neil,
Are you sure it isn’t your internet service dropping after not being used for a while?
I haven’t seen that problem in the 2+ weeks I’ve had the service. Actually, I haven’t had any problems whatsoever and find the quality of the audio/service better than my previous landline system, which is quite surprising. I think a lot of that has to do with the new DECT 6 phones though.
If you isolate and can be sure that the problem is not your internet connection being dropped during the evening, then if it were me I’d throw the router against a concrete wall, break it, and then call tmobile and demand they replace the router that just broke for some unknown reason.
mark
Mark,
It could be the Internet service dropping, but if that’s the case then T-Mobile / Linksys needs to improve how their router recovers from that happening. I’ve been doing some research on the Internet & this seems to be something that’s happening to a number of people.
Very tempting plan to get the router replaced…
I am interested in the @Home service, but just recently signed up with Verizon for my land line and DSL. Can you get a number through TMobile to use with the @Home, or do you have to port your land line number? I think that would break my contract with Verizon. Thanks
Hi Jason,
I recently cancelled my Verizon landline/DSL combination package. In my area, when you cancel your landline they switched me to ‘dry loop dsl’ (in other words, they turned off any voice transmission through my phone line so it would just work with DSL). That would have been cool but the problem for me was that, once I cancelled my landline with them, they raised my DSL service rate by $12 per month. That made it the same price as Comcast’s broadband, which is *much* faster (see my other post about that).
In your case…if you have a contract with Verizon and/or are not willing to switch to another broadband provider then I would think it would cost you more to switch to Tmobile@home for your landline and it probably wouldn’t be worth it. But that’s purely a guess.
Thanks Mark
That’s kind of what I was thinking. We just have the most basic land line and their decent DSL. The thought of unlimited long distance for $10 a month sounds nice, but I guess I will have to look for something else until my contract is up.
I signed up for T-Mobile@Home as soon as it became available. I have AT&T U-verse for my internet and TV and the T-Mobile router connected to the AT&T residential gateway and was automatically put on a dmz by the residential gateway. Haven’t had any problems with the quality. it’s like you’re on your regular land line. I love it. i’m saving about $40/month compared to ATT.
Ric-
I have AT&T U-verse for our internet and tv as well, and love the service. I hate their telephone service (it’s pricey even for the most basic service and the quality of sound is terrible), and would love to switch to Tmobile. Can you explain a bit more how it works to set up the T-mobile router along with the residential gateway…
Since the @home uses bandwidth from your DSL or cable line - can anybody give me info on when the phone is being used, does it interfere with computer downloads/uploads, etc? Does it slow things up?
I was worried about this myself but it is not an issue whatsoever. While undoubtedly it must take up some bandwidth, I used my @home phone a week or two ago, set to speakerphone, while I shared my computer screen in a virtual meeting room using Adobe Connect (similar to WebEx, etc). This was a 2-hour meeting with a client where he was located a state away from me and in which I was transmitting/sharing my computer screen the entire call while also talking via the @home service. Not a single bit of static, slowdown, nothing. I was quite impressed.
Wow. That is sweet, Mark.
And, didn’t you say that you have Comcast cable coming into your house? I’m thinking of switching to Comcast for broadband, instead of my ATT DSL, b/c I have Comcast for TV anyway. That way I’d get the DoublePlay from Comcast and use @home for my land phone.
A rep at the TMobile told me that my cell phone would use the @home service when I am in the house - is that how yours works also?
Yes - as much as I hate Comcast for their awful customer service, I did bite the bullet and switch. I’ve had it about 2 or 3 weeks now and it’s been great - no issues, and of course it is much faster than the DSL line I had before so I’m glad I switched.
As far as the rep telling you that your cell phone would use the @home service when you’re in the house - I am not sure but I think that that is incorrect. I believe you need to purchase the Tmobile hotspot service (or something like that) to be able to be able to switch automatically to voip when your cell is within range of the router. Maybe someone with more info on this can chime in.
How odd, I just had to reboot my @Home router. Couldn’t ping it, couldn’t ping my DSL modem. After power cycling it I now have internet service again. I wasn’t even going to post about this - how ironic it happened. I think it happened yesterday too. Hmmm.
Now, for what I REALLY was going to type.
Has anyone successfully ported their landline number over yet?
- I put in a request a bit over a week ago. I was told it would be complete by 7/31.
- 7/31 in the afternoon I call and ask if anything is wrong. I get transferred to the number tranfer dept, then the landline transfer dept. The T-Mobile agent there mentions that they just needed to push it through their system and that if I hold, they’ll take care of it. I wait ~ 4mins, they say it is now complete. I get home from work - still no port of #. I decide to wait until today to call.
8/1 - I call at 6:45pm PST to again inquire about what’s going on. I get transferred to the number transfer dept. I then wait there for a LONG time because they need to transfer me to the landline tranfer dept. I wait, and wait, and wait. FINALLY I get someone and they say “I need to transfer you to the landline transfer dept and they closed 15 mins ago” !!!!
He said they’re open tomorrow (Sat). Hope so.
Dave,
I ported my number over. If I recall correctly, it did take at least a week. Closer to the 10 days they warned me it would take. And I do recall being frustrated with getting transferred to that ‘Number Transfer Dept’ - the first time I tried to call to port my number, I got transferred to that department and before they picked up I got hung up on. The second time, I got stuck in some vicious customer service loop where I kept getting bounced from one rep to the next. I got through the third time and the rep was fine once I finally got to one in the correct department.
For the record….it’s been about 3 weeks or so now that I’ve had the service and I haven’t had any issues with the router. I haven’t had to cycle the power or anything with it, which is a miracle since I’m also now using a new Comcast broadband modem/service, having switched from Verizon DSL, and I’m lucky I guess that everything’s been running so smoothly for me with all these new services. Last week my wife, who has turned into that prototypical housewife who gets 15 phone calls/conversations per day, told me that she had 2 calls drop on her (1 per day for 2 days). But then she said that the 2nd call that dropped was with her friend who was yapping away on a cell phone while driving, so we think the drop was probably caused on her end. Otherwise, no issues.
Got off the phone with T-Mobile regarding my landline # transfer. They said that AT&T hasn’t yet done something they were supposed to. T-Mobile will call AT&T on Monday (since AT&T number transfer dept doesn’t work on weekends) to straighten it out.
Other news/interesting things
- the firmware for this router is no longer available from the Linksys website. In searching around on the web, I saw a post of something similar regarding the Linksys SAP9000 where Linksys said that the person needs to go through their provider for firmware updates. I wonder if this will happen with this router too - that firmware updates are received from T-Mobile
- the router has call logging. If you go to the router setup page, then click on STATUS, then on VOICE, then click on the button CALL LOG at the bottom, you can see what calls were placed (maybe received too - I have yet to receive a call). Power cycling the router erases the log.
Had T-Mobile@home service for the past month, and these are my experience.
Equipment & set up: AT&T DSL to an old Motorola Speedstream 5100 DSL Modem (from AT&T), to TMobile/Linksys WRTU54G-TM Router with SIM card in Phone 1 slot, to Panasonic DECT 6.0 KX-TG9343 phone (3 hand sets) with answering machine. New phone number from TMobile (chose to keep my old AT&T land line with ‘measured rate of about $6/month, in case of emergency when power goes down and VOIP is out; we live in earth quake and fire country of California).
Set up was straight forward as per printed instruction (set up CD does not work for Mac).
Worked fine for a day then ‘blue light’ for active phone port on the Linksys(Lks) went out and phone went dead. TMobile (Tmb) Tech Support got me to try various changes on the setup page of the router as well as rebooting the router before the the blue light came back on and the phone resume working. They told me to exchange the router, which I did. Thinking that my problem was due to a faulty Linksys router.
Two days later, blue light and phone went out again. Tmb tech support tried again, went from level 1 support to level 2 etc. but was stumped , so handed me to Linksys tech support level 1 then on to level 2 (I think, located in the Philippines); polite (contrasting with recent tech support from India) and knowledgeable; after an hour plus trying various changes to the configuration, function was restored (they provided me with a case number for reference). Did not last more than another two days before it went down again. Thought I would short circuit the procedure and called Lks direct with the given reference number; no dice! had to first go through Tmb various levels of tech support again before getting to Lks in the Philippines who again politely and patiently walked me through the trouble shooting process to get the system back on.
Of interest to some may be Lks suggestion that part of the problem may be due to conflict between the Motorola Modem and the Lks router and suggest that the modem be set to ‘bridge mode’ should the problem recur. I have since replaced that modem with a new 2Wire 2701HG Wireless Router with DSL Modem (from AT&T), without setting it to bridge mode, so far no problem but will keep my fingers crossed.
Caller ID will show phone number on the recipient’s phone, unless they already have your name to match your number on their data base. My request to Tmb was to block my name and number from showing up on the recipient’s called ID ; so far Tmb have not been able to do even though they tell me that they have done this from their ‘back end’ and that may take 72 hours, and its past that and my number is still showing up on the people I called Caller ID. Procedure used for this block such as *67 that works on mobile hand set does not work.
I have another problem that no one seems able to solve. When a call comes in and is allowed to be picked up by the Panasonic’s answering machine (I chose not to use Tmb voice mail), a message is left, the caller hangs up but the answering machine will continue to record the typical telephone busy signal for about 8 seconds before it will relinquish the line. At first I thought it was the Panasonic so I connected it to the land line; no problem, the line was released after the caller’s message was left and they hung up, with no after ‘busy tone’. So it is only with the Tmb VOIP set up. Any one else experiencing similar problem with this or with other VOIP (like Vonage)?
Thanks for the post
This site is great. Have had Tmobile @home 2 days (with Vtech DEC 6 phones which I needed anyway due to only one phone in house with LCD display). I have been Tmobile customer for 4 years with no problems and good service so I did not mind 2 year agreement and up front cost. FYI, my son-in-law is in the phone system installation business and he noted the LinkSys tmobile router retails around $120 and the Vtech phones are good products with excellent range and clarity so the prices are fair. He also verified that if the house access point outside is disconnected from incoming phone system you should be able to route your Tmobile dial tone from the back of the router into any jack and feed all the jacks in your home. But if your using DSL like me you need to identify the incoming AT&T wires providing DSL and not disconnect them. Most homes are wired for two lines, use one set of colored wires for DSL and the other set to supply your Tmobile dial tone. I haven’t done it yet but plan to soon. Should work.
But my problem is inability to port my AT&T land line. When I signed up Tmobile advised me I could not port due to “no coverage in my area”. But I have excellent cell coverage at home. Found out this really means they cannot port numbers with my exchange prefix in my state. My son-in-law believes this is due to Bell South not converting old switches to modern digital switches in my zip code. Digital switches enable the carriers to port numbers with just software entries made into their systems. Supposedly Ma Bell will eventually get around to converting all switches someday. If I have to live with changing my home number I will but I have had the same number 12 years and would prefer not to give it up.
My question is — has anybody out there had similar problem and what are my rights as a consumer. I had thought with portability law congress passed and FCC regulations issued that my old company has to give up my number to any new provider I select no matter their technical problems. TMobile representatives at their portability section will not work with me on pushing number change through. Kid on phone just says he can’t input the change because his computer screen will not let him input my home number. Doesn’t AT&T have to comply with the law ? Anyone had similar problem ?
I ordered TMo@Home, kind of like it - but a really cool feature I am missing is the ability to get alert and/or voicemail to an email address - which i had on my previous VoIP company.
go to an authorized dealer instead of “owned” and get a $30. rebate on router
Mark,
just want to start of f by thanking you, this is so far the best source for the @home service I’ve found (and that includes t-mobiles own site)…
my questions are,
1. did you have to get a separate SIM to dedicate to the home phone line? I figure there is a SIM in the router because you talk about porting your landline.
2. are you a t-mobile wireless customer? if so, do you have a wifi t-mobile phone with UMA that you use through the router? just wondering if you had any feedback on that… (or if anyone else does)
Koichi,
Great questions. I’ve been getting some of those questions via email for a while now so I decided to write a new post to address them, so maybe they will be better searchable via Google. Go to my main site for the Tmobile@Home FAQ post.
mark
The @home service is “$9.99/mo plus taxes & fees”…for budgeting purposes, what is the actual, final cost that I will be paying each mo?
Signed up for both T-M cell service and TM@Home on July 12th here in Los Angeles. A week later I upgraded to the Blackberry Curve. I am very happy with the Blackberry and the WiFi service, as most of my daytime “spots” offer WiFi. Since I get free minutes when on WiFi, the cost of my plan dropped about 50% from Verizon Wireless (although I have yet to see a bill to see all the “extras”).
The problem has been the @Home service. I have been through 4 routers now with 3 of them having the blue light disappears problem and one had bad wireless. Simple power recycling did not help the problem
The Linksys router works exceptionally well with the Blackberry, and the Blackberry automatically remembers all WiFi spots that I have accessed before, so it automatically connects when available.
Tech Support confirms that Panasonic cordless phones (such as I have) have a “flash” issue and I have not been able to successfully switch over for Call Waiting or 3-Way Calling.
Tech support on the blue light issue, had me go to myvoipspeed.visualware.com and click on the test through the Dulles, Virginia site. All of my tests were good, except for the Max Delay which was too high.
Since I had the Linksys router installed in my guest house home office, which is quite a bit away from the Acatel DSL modem in the garage (AT&T DSL), I moved the Linksys to the garage, after the voipspeed test confirmed that the Max Delay was within acceptable limits when connected in the garage. Tech Support had me reset the Linksys and reinstall all of the Linksys parameters (would be nice if Linksys would do a SAVE of all settings in a file) and the Blue Light and service was restored.
However the next afternoon (Wed) the light was out again and voipspeed test reported bad results, so I may have an AT&T DSL issue (original static IP service ordered in 2000). Haven’t had time to diagnose some more, but I will report back.
OK, t-mobile@home is not working out for me. I seem to fade out when talking to people on the phone. There’s too much unknown interference. And there are not VOICE MAIL BOX options. You cannot set up separate message boxes. There is something called group lists, but no one at tmobile can seem to explain anything. Plus, JUST TRY, I dare you to find some real support online. The support people are clueless.
So, after 2 months of considering, and one month of actually setting things up, I was totally dissatisfied. So, AT&T paid me $150 to come back. SWEEEEETT!!! Plus, I’ll get everything I ever wanted. Plus, a phone when the power goes out.
Call me an idiot. Tmobile@home i
OK, t-mobile@home is not working out for me. I seem to fade out when talking to people on the phone. There’s too much unknown interference. And there are not VOICE MAIL BOX options. You cannot set up separate message boxes. There is something called group lists, but no one at tmobile can seem to explain anything. Plus, JUST TRY, I dare you to find some real support online. The support people are clueless. So, after 2 months of considering, and one month of actually setting things up, I was totally dissatisfied. So, AT&T paid me $150 to come back. SWEEEEETT!!! Plus, I’ll get everything I ever wanted. Plus, a phone when the power goes out. Bottom, line. It’s not ready for primetime.
Call me an idiot. Tmobile@home i
Summary: After T-Mobile had me run myvoipspeed.visualware.com to test my connection, it came up with longer Max Delay than was acceptable, and I moved my Linksys to the garage next to my AT&T DSL modem and the Max Delay was within acceptable limits. They then had me do a reset on the linksys (paperclip in hole on back for 10 seconds while power is on), power down, power up and then reset all of the appropriate parameters on the Linksys (having a Mac I cannot use the supplied CD-ROM, but is easily done with a web browser on my laptop connected to the Linksys by going to 192.168.0.1 and logging in ad “admin” password “admin”). After 24 hours the connection (and blue light) failed again.
So now I called AT&T Internet. They had me go to: http://helpme.att.net/dsl/speedtest/ and the test results indicated that my dsl service was well within their specs (I pay extra for “elite” higher speed dsl) and that it should work for VoIP (T-Mobile actually uses UMA which is similar technology).
THEN THEY SUGGESTED: that I go into the Linksys router and TURN OFF the firewall. I again did a reset with the paperclip, power down, power up, and reset all my parameters for the Linksys and this time DISABLED the FIREWALL located in the SECURITY tab.
My T-Mobile service has consistently worked now for 2-1/2 days. Here’s hoping…
I had a local telephone wiring guy come out and install a jack in the garage for my old fax line (that is now turned off) and disconnect it from AT&T in the outside telephone box. I connected the phone wire from PHONE1 on the Linksys router to this new telephone jack. I now have access to my T-Mobile line anywhere in the house where there was a fax telephone jack (every room in the house).
I still do not have FLASH capability with my Panasonic cordless phones (according to T-Mobile Tech Support, a known issue), so I will have to pick up another phone and try that out. Voice mail is set up and running properly. Now when someone calls my old office telephone number (310 area code), they have no idea that I am taking the call at home (818 area code).
PS: Since I was switching from Verizon Wireless with both cell service and T-Mobile@Home, they waived both activation fees. I also picked up the Blackberry Curve WiFi enabled cellphone and now anytime I am at a WiFi Hot-Spot (home, friend’s office or home, restaurant, Starbucks, airport, almost anywhere but my car) I am getting free WiFi minutes, so I dropped my monthly bill by almost 50% from Verizon. My AT&T DSL includes free WiFi access at all AT&T HotSpots.
Since I had to move the Linksys router to the garage, it dimished my wireless coverage. So I went to Fry’s and picked up a Linksys WRT160N N-Wireless Router and connected that by ethernet in my home office to the original Linksys. Linksys Tech Support walked me through the easy process of “cascading” the two routers so that they operate transparently (New router IP of 192.168.0.2; disable DHCP server).
So now all of my computers, AppleTVs, DirecTV on Demand, etc. are all back on the same LAN talking to each other and the Internet properly, and now I have two wireless access points that covers the complete home, home office and backyard.
One missing step: The original Linksys router’s ethernet connection, connects to the new Linksys in Port 1 NOT in the Internet port.
I was with Vonage for 2.5 years with two numbers 25 1st and 14 for the 2nd. That’s about 39 a month. I liked Vonage and all its features, But with gas and other problems I thought it would be a bad idea since I’m familiar with voice over IP services to give T-mobile a chance. Shooooot 10dollars a month sounds better than 25 dollars a month any day.
So got T-mobile@Home service four weeks ago and so far so good, yeah it was a little nerve racking at first (not knowing if their @home Tech support were up & ready for a new line of problems as with any new thing ) both my blue lights went out for 10 hours. My first though was SH……… 2nd thought was NO…….hhh. As someone said “2 year commitment” by this time I am committed. Any how, they sent an upgrade (patch) over the network and I haven’t had any issues yet for a while until…
FAX PROBLEMS———— it seems I can’t send or receive faxes.
Here’s what I found out the router does not support the data protocol transmitions. And I was on the phone conferencing with T-mobile and Lynksys about what options were available. Lynksys didn’t have any answer. So me and T-mobile checked data setting on the chip (sim card) like a cell phone, but that didn’t help either. I think they will fix or change the router because soon they’ll be losing costumers and getting negative feedback.
If knew I had to give my fax up I would have thought a little harder.
Here’s the catch I have two lan lines. Split Carriers? No
The bottom line is YES stay with T-mobile. They have the best prices compared other carriers I like the minute management feature this year in time for school kids.
Cheezee I know
Carl,
You’re not the first person to find out after the fact that fax transmissions don’t work with Tmobile@Home. Question - did it work with Vonage? I’d be shocked if it did.
Call me crazy but…why does anyone in the year 2008 use a traditional fax machine and not just a scanner and online fax service?
mark
Yes, my fax worked with vonage, no problems at all.
And traditional faxes are still need for some important document, I myself use email faithfully. I couldn’ t live without it.
Faxes are just like stamps, you never know when they’re needed.
I switched to jFax some time ago (www.j2.com), so I could receive all of my faxes by email.
Also, jFax does allow outgoing faxes through email, as well (1-area code-xxx-xxxx@j2send.com) by attaching a pdf.
Pagesender for the Mac automates the outgoing process with cover sheets, if needed.
I solved the Flash problem on my Panasonic cordless phones by adjusting the Flash time down from 700ms to 100ms.
I *think* I have a solution for the mysterious ‘blue light goes out for no reason and I lose service’ problem. See my latest post for the solution I came up with - http://elearninglive.com/wordpress/2008/09/the-dreaded-t-mobilehome-blue-light-went-out-dropped-service-problem-and-solution/
Marks last blog post..The Dreaded T-Mobile@Home ‘Blue Light Went Out’ Dropped Service Problem and Solution?