RSST-Mobile announces new UMA 'landline'
By Tim Conneally | Published February 21, 2008, 2:20 PM
T-Mobile has announced an addition to its Hotspot@Home service with the Talk Forever Home Phone add-on plan which comes with the WRTU54G wireless router geared toward the fixed, home user, utilizing the company's UMA technology.
At a cost of $10 per month (plus taxes and fees), the plan includes: unlimited nationwide calling, call forwarding, 3-way conferencing, voice mail, hold, and call waiting. Signup requires an existing T-Mobile single line plan of $39.99 or more, or family plan of $49.99 or more.
Vonage, arguably the most recognizable name in VoIP, offers unlimited domestic calling plans for a monthly fee of $24.99 a month with no prior contracts required, and offers the same feature list. The main difference between the two services, however, is that T-Mobile's system is not true VoIP.
T-Mobile's HotSpot@Home solution uses a technology called UMA (unlicensed mobile access), which attempts to preserve the characteristics of a traditional GSM call. Some actually refer to it as "GSM over IP." The original deployment of this technology, in June of 2007, was meant to give the mobile user a steady connection while at home, but required an 802.11-compatible device to properly connect.
This router broadcasts a 5.8 GHz signal so that standard wireless telephones can pick up and connect. Based upon the popular WRT54G Linksys wireless router, T-Mobile's unit is optimized for voice calling, shifting bandwidth to prioritize voice traffic over data.
Initial deployments of this service will be in Dallas, Texas, and Seattle, Washington.
What an useless product. There are very few cordless landline phones in use that operate at 5.8GHz. Most consumers that have landline phone service have a 2.4GHz or 900MHz cordless landline phone.
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|yes, because they are rare, and you should have added oh so expensive, 5.8ghz has became very common I know both wireless headsets in my apartment are, and I know the old one I had in my dorm room was also. I didn't pick them cause they were, I picked them for their looks.
http://www.google.com/pr...ient=firefox-a&um=1
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|I've been using a 5.8ghz landline for years, just so it wouldn't interfere with my wireless router. I would imagine anyone with a wireless router does the same, so they're definitely not rare.
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|I never said 5.8GHz cordless phones are rare. I said that very few people use them. It's mostly people with advanced technical computer knowledge that use them.
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|I can't wait!
Who needs to surf/dload/play-online while they're on the phone, anyway?
*cough*
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