T-Mobile Announces Uncarrier 7.0: Personal CellSpot, WiFi Unleashed
by Joshua Ho on September 10, 2014 5:08 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
- T-Mobile
- Uncarrier
While it was alluded to in the iPhone 6 announcement, today T-Mobile is announcing WiFi Unleashed, which enables WiFi calling and texting for all Simple Choice customers and seamless hand-off of calls to cellular. In addition, T-Mobile is also partnering with GoGo to provide free text messaging and visual voicemail in flights that use GoGo to provide WiFi.
On the Personal CellSpot side, T-Mobile will give a free Asus 802.11ac WiFi router with 25 USD refundable deposit to Simple Choice customers starting on September 17th, which also acts as a femtocell and will provide signal to improve capacity and coverage of the network.
Overall, this seems to only extend the lead that T-Mobile already has with their extensive focus upon disrupting how mobile network operators do business in the US, and it'll be interesting to see what's in the Personal CellSpot.
Source: T-Mobile Newsroom
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ron1936891 - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the CellSpot is not a "femtocell", but instead is simply a WiFi router that prioritizes VOIP over other traffic. If thats the case, I think that most people won't get much benefit from it since VOIP doesn't really need a lot of data, and most people's network connection is idle most of the time anyway.JoshHo - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
It wouldn't really make sense to require a custom router then, QoS profiles don't need custom hardware. I will correct the article if it becomes clear that this isn't a femtocell and WiFi router.ron1936891 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
You may be right ... it is not completely clear from the press release. It just seems a little weird to me to say that WiFi calling is the next thing, all our phones will support it, but just in case it doesn't work, we'll give you a femtocell as well to convert cellular signals into VOIP.Assimilator87 - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
This is awesome for someone such as myself, who's still running a single band 802.11n WAP. I'll gladly rent their ac router for free. If it does indeed provide cell coverage as well, even better. I only get one bar at home.rudyv1 - Wednesday, September 10, 2014 - link
Femtocell in Canada, is this possible somehow on any provider?casteve - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
I went with T-Mobile a year ago as they supported wifi calling (and all carriers had poor coverage at my house). When it works, it's great. However, it almost always drops calls for me. Even, when I'm 10' away from my router. So, some kind of QoS issue. Could be the SGS4, could be Comcast, could be T-Mobile.. Also, wifi calling didn't support intra-T-Mobile HD Voice. Hopefully, things get beter.fic2 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
I'm sure it is because T-Mobile hasn't paid a "Netflix" tax to Comcast. After all Comcast has VoIP service they want you to buy for $40/month.GTRagnarok - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
I was thinking it would be some cheap router, but nope, it's an Asus RT-AC68U! That's just awesome.fic2 - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Seriously? That is a $200 router. I'll gladly rent that for free.fatpenguin - Thursday, September 11, 2014 - link
Doesn't a femtocell expand their coverage at the expense of your bandwidth (aka. others can make calls on your femtocell if they are within range)? If so, then I guess it's not so free. I could be wrong.