Chris Leckness

The Talk Forever Home Phone plan from T-Mobile lets regular home phones use the Internet in a test in Dallas and Seattle. At $10 a month, T-Mobile's Talk Forever plan challenges both traditional wired-service providers and VOIP service. While T-Mobile's Talk Forever plan appears similar to VOIP, it actually goes through a T-Mobile gateway.
T-Mobile wants you to talk forever. The wireless provider is testing its Talk Forever Home Phone plan in two cities, Seattle and Dallas. The plan allows unlimited U.S. calling for $10 a month.
The home user needs four components: an existing high-speed Internet connection, a T-Mobile Wireless Router with Home Phone Connection, a qualifying T-Mobile wireless plan with the Talk Forever plan, and a compatible home phone. The router plugs into the user's broadband connection, and then any regular phone can be plugged into the router.



"You just plug in the router into your broadband connection and plug in your home phone into the router," the company said on its Web site, emphasizing ease of use. The existing home phone number can be used, and any standard touch-tone phone will do.
For homes with several cordless phones running off a base station, the base station can be plugged into the router and any of the cordless phones can use the unlimited service. However, T-Mobile warns, while 5.8-GHz cordless phones or traditional touch phones work fine, 2.4-GHz cordless phones "do not work well with Wi-Fi."
The Talk Forever plan can be added to an existing T-Mobile single-line mobile plan of $39.99 or higher, or any FamilyTime mobile plan of $49.99 or higher. Caller ID, voice mail, call forwarding, three-way conference calling, call holding, and call waiting are included.
"This is phase two of T-Mobile's existing HotSpot@Home plan," noted Bill Ho, an analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis. The HotSpot@Home plan, which offers a wireless router for home, has been out since fall 2006. It currently offers unlimited wireless calling over Wi-Fi for about $20 a month. Aside from the price difference, the user cannot employ a regular home phone in that plan.
Although the Talk Forever plan appears similar to a voice-over-Internet, or VOIP, service, Ho noted that the broadband connection actually routes calls to a T-Mobile gateway.
Ho added that the low-cost, unlimited calling is "a threat to wire-line carriers," since the price is significantly cheaper than the unlimited service wire-line carriers offer. "It also furthers the view that you can get all the phone services you need from T-Mobile," he said.
Since T-Mobile does not yet offer 3G, said IDC analyst Chris Hazelton, "this is part of their play against 3G competitors." He also noted a home user could use a wireless UMA/Wi-Fi phone with the plan, and that T-Mobile offers three such devices, including the BlackBerry Curve.
UMA phones allow for a transparent, automatic handoff between Wi-Fi and cellular, so a user could be talking on a cellular network in the street, go home, and be switched transparently to Wi-Fi.
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