@Home Training, What I Learned.

[redwildebeast]

ok so i went to the @home training saturday. just wanted to share what i learned.
1: service will work with any router. t-mobiles router has a few advantages over your router. it conserves battery on your phone and has the voice calls set as priority over data transmission.
2:it will work with any account type. prepaid and postpaid.
3: if you have the @home addon it will be unlimited free calls from home. if you dont have the addon it will use your minutes.
4: any call that you start on the router will be a free call until you hang up. for example, you start a call at home on the router, you leave and go for a drive for 3 hours and continue talking. that whole call will be free.
5: any call started on cell towers will take up your minutes. for example, if you are driving and make a call then you get home and the phone picks up the router it is still using your minutes. hang up when you get home and call back.
6: only @home phones can use the service. doesnt matter if your phone does wifi. if it isnt an @home phone it wont work.
7: new phones will launch in august. Blackberry Curve will launch in september.
8:soft launch was june 27. the full out nationwide launch with advertising and everything will start july 3.
9: the addon price is $9.99 for single lines and $19.99 for family plans. this is a promotional price. regular price will eventually rise to $19.99 for single line and $29.99 for families.

thats all i know for now will add anything new i learn.

[Scooby214]

Thanks for putting all of this info together in an easy to find place. I expect that we'll see new forum members with questions about @Home.

[CSI_Nut]

Thank you, redwildebeast. Regarding the prepaid @home features: I'm assuming this will still charge regular prepaid minutes even when using the WiFi, right? However, it would result in a better connection possibly?

[redwildebeast]

Thank you, redwildebeast. Regarding the prepaid @home features: I'm assuming this will still charge regular prepaid minutes even when using the WiFi, right? However, it would result in a better connection possibly?

that is correct it will use your minutes.

[Scooby214]

that is correct it will use your minutes.
What a great addition for ToGo service! The @Home service definitely sets T-Mo ToGo apart from the other prepaid services. :D

[anfrey]

very cool... now... what is the name of this technology called? i know t-mo called it @home, but what is this kind of dual technology called in the industry?

[CSI_Nut]

How about PocketWife? er... PocketWifi...

[anfrey]

How about PocketWife? er... PocketWifi...
are you asking me or telling me? :P

[CSI_Nut]

Asking you with utmost respect, of course... ;-)

[anfrey]

Asking you with utmost respect, of course... ;-)
lol, thanks for the smile...

i dunno the answer myself, which is why i wa s asking.. pocketwifi, afaik, is a software package to make your internet connection a pay hotspot (which will violate the terms of services for almost every consumer broadband provider)... hm... but i'm really interested in what it's known as int he industry

[redwildebeast]

UMA or now GAN
The Generic Access Network (GAN) was formerly known as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), until it was adopted by the 3GPP in April 2005.

It describes a telecommunication system allowing seamless roaming and handover between local area networks and wide area networks using the same dual-mode mobile phone. The term GAN remains little known outside the 3GPP community, and the term UMA continues to be used in preference as a marketing term.

The local network could be based on private unlicensed spectrum technologies like Bluetooth or 802.11. The wide network is alternatively GSM/GPRS or UMTS mobile services.

It lets mobile operators deliver voice, data and IMS/SIP (IP Multimedia Subsystem/Session Initiation Protocol) type applications to mobile phones on local networks. Its ultimate goal is the convergence of mobile, fixed and Internet telephony (Fixed Mobile Convergence).

On the cellular network, the mobile handset is communicating over the air with a base station, through a base station controller, to servers in the core network of the carrier. Under the GAN system, when the handset detects a LAN, it establishes a secure IP connection through a gateway to a server called a GAN Controller (GANC) on the carrier's network. The GANC translates the signals coming from the handset to make it appear to be coming from another base station. Thus, when a mobile moves from a GSM to a Wifi network, it appears to the core network as if it is simply on a different base station.

GAN was developed as UMA by a group of operators and vendors. The Participating Companies published the initial UMA Technology specifications on 2nd September 2004. The companies then contributed the specifications to the 3GPP organization as part of 3GPP work item "Generic Access to A/Gb interfaces". On 8th April 2005, the 3GPP approved specifications for Generic Access to A/Gb interfaces for 3GPP Release 6.

[anfrey]

thanks for the info, that's exactly what i wanted to know.

[redwildebeast]

wikipedia always has the info you need

[tmobilefan]

Thanks for the info!!:)

[Scooby214]

I keep hearing it still being referred to as UMA when I read reviews or reports about T-Mobile's service. Do you think T-Mobile still refers to it as UMA?

[redwildebeast]

they did up until about a week from launch. there was a little check box to check when activating a customer that said " UMA enabled device" for anyone that had their own UMA device. but now that is gone.

[Scooby214]

I have been pleasantly surprised at how smoothly everything has worked so far. I guess they did a good job with the trial in Seattle. I had expected that since I was trying it right when it was first launched nationally that there would be some problems to be worked through.

I hope the big 3G rollout, whenever it comes, goes just as smoothly!

[Railroader]

Will it work normally when on a roaming partner? We have T-Mobile, but up here AT&T Affiliate, Edge Wireless provides the GSM.

[Scooby214]

Wirelessly posted (Nokia6086/2.0 (13.51) Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1)

Are you asking about 3G OR @Home?

[redwildebeast]

if you are reffering to @home yes it will work while roaming railroader

[Scooby214]

if you are reffering to @home yes it will work while roaming railroader
I thought that while the Wifi part will work, it wouldn't be able to handoff to a roaming GSM network and that the call would drop when you moved out of Wifi range. Am I correct?

[anfrey]

wikipedia always has the info you need
true, but wikipedia can easily be wrong. i know people that purposely add erroneous information... sometimes it takes the wikipedia team a few months to find and correct the error

[darkjedi]

The service itself, the technology is called UMA....

The curve will launch in September as discussed in a few other threads and 2 more phones can be expected mid July, the 6136 Nokia and the Samsung t409 are confirmed...

[Railroader]

if you are reffering to @home yes it will work while roaming railroader

Awesome, thanks red!

[GoodLuckBear]

The service itself, the technology is called UMA....

The curve will launch in September as discussed in a few other threads and 2 more phones can be expected mid July, the 6136 Nokia and the Samsung t409 are confirmed...

Last fall T-Mobile launched 2 phones in the Seattle market: Nokia 6136 and the Samsung 709.
With the nationwide launch on June 27th, 2 newer phones were released: Nokia 6086 and Samsung 409.

[GoodLuckBear]

Awesome, thanks red!

Hey Railroader, the thing to note is that your calls will not transition from Wi-Fi to GSM or vice versa when you are near a roaming partner tower. The service will only transition between Wi-Fi and T-Mobile USA towers.

So in your scenario, you would get T-Mobile coverage via Wi-Fi, but if you walk out your door and out of range of the wireless router, your would drop your call.

[GoodLuckBear]

UMA or now GAN
The Generic Access Network (GAN) was formerly known as Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), until it was adopted by the 3GPP in April 2005.

It describes a telecommunication system allowing seamless roaming and handover between local area networks and wide area networks using the same dual-mode mobile phone. The term GAN remains little known outside the 3GPP community, and the term UMA continues to be used in preference as a marketing term...

If you want the in depth on how this technology works check out http://www.umatechnology.com/

[Railroader]

Hey Railroader, the thing to note is that your calls will not transition from Wi-Fi to GSM or vice versa when you are near a roaming partner tower. The service will only transition between Wi-Fi and T-Mobile USA towers.

So in your scenario, you would get T-Mobile coverage via Wi-Fi, but if you walk out your door and out of range of the wireless router, your would drop your call.


Hmm, that wouldn't be any good! This is all Edge Wireless up here, the nearest T-Mobile tower is 35 miles south of me, in Cloverdale in Sonoma County. Why didn't they make it to work seamelessly on or off T-Mobile's network? Are they planning to in the future?

[Tom_in_AZ]

Who knows with T-Mobile. I have been with them forever, and they just seem to jump into things without finalizing a proper setup. In the past 5 years, every phone I have used I needed to wait for months before all of the features were activated by T-Mobile. So I think it is something we will need to sit and wait for. Besides, they really need to step up their game with that new iPhone that was released. So we might just see some really nice things come about.

[chokaay]

Here's an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ref=technology) in today's NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ref=technology) giving a pretty good write-up of the basics of T-mo @Home service. It basically confirms most of the details Beast said.

[Scooby214]

Here's an article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ref=technology) in today's NY Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/technology/circuits/05pogue.html?ref=technology) giving a pretty good write-up of the basics of T-mo @Home service. It basically confirms most of the details Beast said.
That is a good write-up. Thanks for posting the link.

While the @Home service won't iron my clothes or pick winning lottery numbers for me like the iPhone, the service does what it is supposed to, and it does it quite well!

[anfrey]

the iphone irons clothes??!? that alone is worth the pricetag.

[Tom_in_AZ]

I wonder if they are going to allow the wing to be part of this service or if we are going to continue to be restricted to Skype and others.

[chokaay]

CONFIRMED: T-MOBILE ALLOWS @HOME USAGE (WiFi/UMA calling) FROM FOREIGN COUNTRIES FOR FREE*!!! (http://www.t-mobilesignal.com/forum/5373-post4.html)


*NOTE: All @Home (WiFi/UMA) calls initiated anywhere in the world will be billed as if it originated within the U.S.A. NO International Roaming fees will be billed! If you call the U.S., then you will use your Unlimited N&W (if applicable), Unlimited M2M (if applicable), and Anytime Minutes (during peak times based in the U.S.). If you call a foreign number, then International Calling Fees WILL be billed (but NOT International Roaming if you make the call outside of the U.S.). Adding $9.99-$19.99/mo for the @Home Add-On will grant you UNLIMITED @HOME CALLING anytime to any U.S.-based number (will not count against your Anytime Minutes).

[redwildebeast]

nice, theres the confirmation you were looking for.

[anfrey]

i may have to sign up for this and mail the router to my parents overseas

[chokaay]

i may have to sign up for this and mail the router to my parents overseas


Yup, that's what I'm thinking. Just make sure to tell them NOT to call any NON-U.S. NUMBER with your T-Mobile phone... and how to check if the phone is on WIFI vs. GSM. ;)

[anfrey]

wonder if i'll need to add an extra line for this...

[chokaay]

wonder if i'll need to add an extra line for this...


I don't think so... just buy them T-Mobile @Home Phones and tell them to swap their SIMs out. Either that, or add an additional line to your family plan for $9.99/mo, then tell your parents that phone is for calling the U.S. ONLY!!! :D

If you want to add UNLIMITED @HOME HOTSPOT CALLING, then it's $9.99/mo additional per line or $19.99/mo per family plan (prices are subject to increase after July... or so my local store rep says). ;)

[anfrey]

i'm on a famly plan now so....

[chokaay]

i'm on a famly plan now so....


1) Just by your parents 1-2 @Home Cell Phone(s) to use with your existing WiFi network over there (if you have one). There is NO MONTHLY FEE. Minutes will be taken out of your Unlimited N&W (if you have it), Unlimited M2M (since you are on a family plan), or Anytime Minutes (during daytime in your U.S. time zone). Calling U.S.-Based Numbers will incur NO International Roaming Fees. Calling any Non-U.S. Number WILL incur International Long Distance Charges from T-Mobile.

-OR-

2) Pay $19.99/mo AND buy 1-2 @Home Cell Phone(s) to use with your existing WiFi network over there (you can buy a T-Mobile Branded WiFi Router if you don't have a WiFi network overseas... since it's FREE after rebate if you add the @Home add-on for 2-3 months at least). You will get UNLIMITED @HOME WIFI CALLS TO ANY U.S.-BASED NUMBER, ANYTIME! Calling U.S.-Based Numbers will incur NO International Roaming Fees. Calling any Non-U.S. Number WILL incur International Long Distance Charges from T-Mobile.


(You can also pay $9.99 and add on @Home to a single line in your family plan... but that would mean the other line(s) would NOT get Unlimited @Home Calling...)

[anfrey]

well, the two lines in my family plan right now are used by my dame and i... hmm.. still trying to figure this out... right now they use skype to call over here

[GoodLuckBear]

A little side note about the international calling back to the states while on Wi-Fi, that pricing, or lack of pricing can change. T-Mobile can tell that you are outside of the U.S. and if they decide to at some point, they can in fact start billing for it. It's not one of their selling points for this product, so be leary of using it for "free" calls home from international locations.

It's a great perk right now though.

[davigf]

ok so i went to the @home training saturday. just wanted to share what i learned.
1: service will work with any router. t-mobiles router has a few advantages over your router. it conserves battery on your phone and has the voice calls set as priority over data transmission.
2:it will work with any account type. prepaid and postpaid.
3: if you have the @home addon it will be unlimited free calls from home. if you dont have the addon it will use your minutes.
4: any call that you start on the router will be a free call until you hang up. for example, you start a call at home on the router, you leave and go for a drive for 3 hours and continue talking. that whole call will be free.
5: any call started on cell towers will take up your minutes. for example, if you are driving and make a call then you get home and the phone picks up the router it is still using your minutes. hang up when you get home and call back.
6: only @home phones can use the service. doesnt matter if your phone does wifi. if it isnt an @home phone it wont work.
7: new phones will launch in august. Blackberry Curve will launch in september.
8:soft launch was june 27. the full out nationwide launch with advertising and everything will start july 3.
9: the addon price is $9.99 for single lines and $19.99 for family plans. this is a promotional price. regular price will eventually rise to $19.99 for single line and $29.99 for families.

thats all i know for now will add anything new i learn.
How long is the family plan promotion price scheduled to last. I'd like to wait as long as possible to see more phone selection.

davigf