T-Mobile announces free Wi-Fi calling and texting, Personal Cell Spot at Uncarrier 7.0 event

[Shawn Knight]

Between hurling jabs at rivals AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, outspoken T-Mobile CEO John Legere on Wednesday announced the latest phase in his company’s Uncarrier initiative. The nation’s fourth largest wireless carrier’s (soon to be third according to Legere) latest move is free Wi-Fi calling and texting for all T-Mobile customers.

Moving forward, every smartphone T-Mobile sells will support Wi-Fi calling and texting. Customers that don’t yet have a handset that supports Wi-Fi calling can trade in their existing phone for a compatible one through the Jump program.

Additionally, T-Mobile announced a new Personal Cell Spot. It’s essentially an Asus wireless router that can be placed anywhere in your house to enable Wi-Fi calling. It features 802.11ac connectivity and can cover a range of up to 3,000 square feet.

Any T-Mobile Simple Choice customer can request a Personal Cell Spot for their own use – all that’s required is a $25 deposit. Those on pre-paid accounts can purchase a Personal Cell Spot outright for $99.

Last but not least, Legere announced a new partnership with in-flight Internet provider Gogo that’ll allow any T-Mobile customer with a Wi-Fi calling and texting enabled smartphone to send and receive unlimited texts during a flight starting September 17. Users can even receive visual voicemails during flight.

It’s worth pointing out that calls made over VoLTE can seamlessly be handed off to Wi-Fi, Legere said, but that won’t work for regular calls. At present, VoLTE service is available to a little over three million customers.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/58026-t-mobile-announces-free-wi-fi-calling-and-texting-personal-cell-spot-at-uncarrier-70-event.html

 

[tonylukac]

Big deal for free wifi calling. Their plans are usually unlimited calling anyway.

 

[abysal]

Big deal for free wifi calling. Their plans are usually unlimited calling anyway.

True, but WiFi calling will help where there's little to no cell signal.

 

[Guest]

Free wifi calling is an easy way for them to expand their network with less cost of building infrastructure. Now, if you don't have signal, all you would need would be to find a place with free wifi, which isn't too difficult in today's world.

 

[RustyTech]

Big deal for free wifi calling. Their plans are usually unlimited calling anyway.

True, but WiFi calling will help where there's little to no cell signal.

I like how you're paying T-Mobile to use someone else's internet, perhaps even your own when at the house?

 

[abysal]

I like how you're paying T-Mobile to use someone else's internet, perhaps even your own when at the house?

Yeah it is a bit crummy. Their cell service isn't as good as AT&T or Verizon. But it's good enough. With TMO I can also tether, and I essentially have unlimited data, just no LTE/HSPA+ after you go over your payed for LTE allocation. With ATT and Verizon you were SOL for both unless you pay a lot more. Still I think cell carries have further to go to stop fleecing it's customers.

 

[amstech]

Any waves that rock Verizon's boat are okay with me.

 

[Teko03]

I'm a long time T-Mobile subscriber and a big fan of the uncarrier movement, but this is pathetic. WiFi calling is nothing new, I use it daily at home, not because if poor service, but because I have an old 500 minute Value Plan. WiFi calling has awlays been about limited minutes more so than poor reception. But with all plans being unlimited talk I suppose T-Mobile figured they would re-market and old thing, release an "optimized" WiFi router and capitalize off of the fact that the iPhone 6 supports WiFi calling...finally.

 

[Frank Barnett]

Everyday they are making sh!t up to sound like they are a player.

 

[Eideard]

We're 3 miles from the nearest cell tower and still receive mediocre comm with any carrier. Far enough below the brow of the valley. Cell Spot offers a solution no one else offers.

 

[mctommy]

I like how you're paying T-Mobile to use someone else's internet, perhaps even your own when at the house?

Yeah it is a bit crummy. Their cell service isn't as good as AT&T or Verizon. But it's good enough. With TMO I can also tether, and I essentially have unlimited data, just no LTE/HSPA+ after you go over your payed for LTE allocation. With ATT and Verizon you were SOL for both unless you pay a lot more. Still I think cell carries have further to go to stop fleecing it's customers.

It's all about free rent on a $200 router with a $25 deposit.

We're 3 miles from the nearest cell tower and still receive mediocre comm with any carrier. Far enough below the brow of the valley. Cell Spot offers a solution no one else offers.

Just because you are 3 miles from the cell tower doesn't mean that you should have good cell coverage.

Have you checked that the carrier in question has equipment on it? Typical US cell towers have 3 rads on their tower allowing for 3 sets of equipment. Sometimes there are carriers that occupies 2 of the 3, leaving you with 1 more carrier. So in the end, that tower may have equipment from 2 carriers and not all 4.