T-Mobile: Kill your landline, keep your number and most of your money

T-Mobile is trying harder to pry that home phone out of your hands. Beginning Wednesday, the No. 4 U.S. wireless carrier will let subscribers ditch their land lines and plug cordless phones into a router instead, keeping the old phone number active for just $10 a month.

It's the boldest pitch yet to capitalize on the increasing willingness of consumers to ditch their home phones for cellphones or Internet calling. The trimmings in this case are aimed at those who don't feel comfortable relying on either of those substitutes.

This way, there will still be a phone assigned to the house, so you don't have to depend, for example, on your babysitter having good cell coverage. And T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom, will insist on having your physical address on file, which will be displayed during emergency calls to 911.

If you worry about earthquakes and power outages, you can pay extra for a backup battery that will power the phone and the router.

Speaking of paying extra, we have this from the Department of Caveats: You need a two-year service contract with T-Mobile, and not one of the cheapest contracts but at minimum the $40 monthly package (before the new $10 charge) for a single line. T-Mobile doesn't have the strongest wireless network in the world, and it has the zippiest 3G service only in the New York area. You also need to buy its router for $50 and have your own broadband Internet connection. Then there are the ever-mysterious "taxes and fees."

Yet that still amounts to a pretty good deal, said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin, because last year people paid an average of $65 a month last year for a home phone line and calls. T-Mobile is throwing in free long-distance and local calls, caller ID and call-waiting -- "all the things you usually get nickeled and dimed for," said Brett Wehrman, T-Mobile director of product development.

Since home numbers have been just as portable as cellphone numbers for years, why hasn't anyone else been pitching this? Because the two largest carriers, AT&T and Verizon, have their own land-line affiliates, while Sprint's technology isn't compatible with T-Mobile's approach, Golvin said.

"It's a really smart idea," he said of the T-Mobile pitch. 

-- Joseph Menn

Photo of a Linksys router courtesy of T-Mobile.

Comments

[cahnrccd]

Hidden charges abound. Last week my TMobile cell phone got stolen. It took me 1 day to realize & report it. Now Tmoble is charging me $300 for ringtones I did not buy. It would be even worse if tmobile had my land line on a 2 year contract as well.

[Steve Driscoll]

T-mobile is a day late and a dollar short in my view. Their coverage is questionable and customer service is suspect at best.

I prefer Verizon where the board comes from experienced organizations that are used to dealing with large customer bases.

Source: http://www.implu.com/company/407?tab=4

[mike s]

I've been with t-mobile since early 2004. Before that it was Sprint, an experience that wasn't a very happy one for me. T-mobile has great customer service - not sure what Steve is talking about because they consistently rank #1 in that regard (JD Powers, e.g.). And I can vouch for their service, having used it a number of times in the last four years.

Further, I've never had a coverage problem. Granted I seldom go to sparsely populated areas, but I don't sit at home either. Very, very few dropped calls in four years.

Yea, the 3G network is very slow in coming and I'm not happy about that. But I'm sure when launched in my area later this year, I'll be very happy with it. It's not completely t-mobile's fault with the government not quickly giving up the spectrum that t-mobile won at auction.

[Bob]

Mike,

Steve apparenlty has a vested interest in Verizon. He has posted the exact same comments on several boards.

If you say enough it people will believe. Perception and reality aren't always the best of friends.

Bob

[Bill Samson]

Does this system work with phones that do not need to be hooked up to a line? The main phone is hooked to a line but there are other phones that can be used in other rooms.

[Larry Russo]

I've been with T-Mobile since they were VoiceStream (about 10 years). Their customer service is unparalleled, plain and simple, it's the reason I stay with TMobile even though their coverage isn't the best outside of Metro areas.

For "Steve" to say their CS is "suspect at best" shows this guy has some kind of agenda. He's full of crap. T-Mobile's reps are knowledgeable, courteous, prompt & they are native English speakers. I respect the fact they are one company that decided not to let CS go by the wayside (like so many others out there). As a result, I vote with my wallet to support them.