Setting up T-Mobile @Home (Free at last!)
I have always been envious of my friends who have been land-line free. They save money and no longer have to contribute to the overpriced monopoly that is Ameritech SBC AT&T. As much as I longed to be land-line free I have never been able to take the plunge for a few reasons:
- I have multiple cell phones so I would have to pick one to get all the calls for the whole family which isn’t ideal
- You can’t have multiple people talk on a call at the same time
- You have to carry your cell phone around the house rather than have handsets in each room
All that changed this summer when my cell phone carrier T-Mobile launched their T-Mobile @Home package providing customers unlimited nationwide calling and all the goodies for just $10 a month. Basically its a VOIP router that uses a SIM card to allow you to make calls over the internet using your regular land-line handsets. The day this little beauty came out I ran out to a T-Mobile store and picked one up. When you purchase the router you can have T-Mobile transfer your old land-line phone number over so you don’t have to go through the hassle of changing numbers.
I wasn’t exactly sure how I would set it up in my house since all my routers are in my basement and not near where my house phones are. Fortunately when I got it home everything was a snap to setup and I was making internet calls in no time.
Here are some pictures and the steps I took to get everything setup and running in my house:
1. The router is a typical broadband router with 802.11g wireless. However, this one also has 2 slots for SIM cards and 2 phone ports on the back allowing you to plug a phone into the device to make calls over the Internet.
2. The instructions with the router suggest plugging the router into the Internet and then plugging a phone into the router. This works great except I don’t want just one phone hooked up to the router but rather I wanted all my phone jacks in the house to go over this connection (just like it worked before). So instead of plugging a phone into the router I just plugged in a phone cord and connected it to an outlet I have in my basement.
3. I thought that this would be all I needed to do to get all my outlets in the house connected to the router but whenever I picked up the phone I just got this weird busy-like signal. Even though my AT&T connection was dead it was still causing some conflict on the line with the VOIP router. So this was easily remedied by “cutting the cord” to AT&T (this was fun and therapeutic). I went out to my phone box outside the house and just unhooked the wires that were connected to my phone lines inside.
4. Here is a shot of the finished setup — a wiry mess that manages to keep me connected in all ways necessary (@Home router is on the bottom).
This setup has worked great and I have been saving money every month and have a bunch of great phone services that I never was willing to be ripped off paying for before (caller ID being the big one!).
What’s the full cost for @Home on your monthly bill? Are there a lot of extra taxes and fees?
This is a great post. I work for TMO and am pleased you find the service to be working for you. As a Care rep, I sometimes get calls about this @Home service’s problems or inconveniences.
It is through one of my customers that I found out you can’t port a wireless number to a wired service (just the other way around)… or so they told him. For some reason, our @Home service wasn’t a right fit for him, and he couldn’t go back to the old way with is tenured home number.
@randy – I’m looking at my bill the section for the @Home line is $13.26. That’s 9.99 for the service, .86 for a regulatory program fee, .24 for Federal Universal Service Fund, 1.44 for Telecom Excise tax, and .73 for State 911.
Sounds like a great service! I’m young enough that I don’t even have a landline. I just don’t have a need for one. I can’t believe that the phone companies are still charging people $35 a month(or more) for long distance service ,caller ID, etc… It’s such a scam.
Ray,
We are waiting for tel co. to port land line to T-mobile @Home (both are currently working). Over turkey yesterday I was asked how our monitored home alarm system will function using VOIP….needless to say alarms went off in my head. How specifically are your wired telephone outlets interconnected to require only one VOIP connection, and any thoughts on a T-mobile @home wireless router option to create additional telephone outlets on a as need basis? Our home is 23 years old and the only immediate needs are getting a compatible phone line connected to the alarm box inside our home and naturally much more importantly keeping Tivo going. Any thoughts? Cheers….Bob Boca Raton Florida
georgia tech and uf (gator) alum
Thanks for that posting your explanation. I have found the answer that I was looking for: How to keep my wired network of analog phone. My apartment has many dead zones for DECT sets. Connecting the Router to all my outlets was a make it or kill it issue. You gave me the solution (disconect the home network from ATT at the incoming phone box). Now I have to find which wires to disconnect…..
Alain
Boca Raton, Florida
Alain, to find the right wires just open up one of the phone jacks in your house (just screw off the faceplate). You should see 2 wires connected to the jack of a certain color (one will be solid and one will be striped). Just find these same colors in the telco box and disconnect them and you should be all set.
I went to TMobile to pick up a SIM card for my cellphone and got talked into the @Home service. Always wanted to go VOIP but was concerned about my sometimes sketchy VerizonDSL service and being without tel service if the DSL went down.
I think I got a great deal – no activation fee, free router, free service for the first and second month, plus a cellphone upgrade 100% discount to a the next version of Blackberry due out in a few days. Of course, I had to take the 2-year contract. Also, I got 2 SIM cards with 2 temporary numbers and I have 15 days to rescind the deal without the $200 EFT.
I have not setup as yet; my research led me to your blog via your posts on DSL.com
Now to the question. My service from the telco (Verizon) includes a second line and number, which carries the DSL service. Do you think by porting that ancillary number to @Home will affect the DSL service?
Best bet is to call Verizon. I don’t know their policy specifically but each Bell seems to treat this case differently. Some require that you have a landline in order to have the DSL service and recently some have been allowing you get DSL without any local phone service. You would have to call them know what they are allowing your area.
@ray
Thanks, Ray. Since my post I ‘chatted online’ with a Verizon rep and he assured me that I can continue to have VerizonDSL service without their landline tel service. Also, my internet research indicates that this service –called “naked dsl”, “standalone dsl” or “dry loop dsl” — is being offered more and more since lots of users have given up their landline and shifted to cellular service as a practical matter.
I found this link to be useful http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles%2F2006%2Fs1710%2F14s10%2F14s10.asp
That’s good news dcallen. I am glad it worked out for you! Thanks for stopping by with the update.
How can I disconnect my old landline at the box outside or elsewhere without disconnecting my DSL service?
Jon, you’ll need to run the DSL on a different pair of wires. So if your house is currently running on the blue pair of wires go out to the box and disconnect those. Then tie down the orange pair (or any other color) to the posts where the blue ones used to be (make note of which post the solid wire was tied to and which one the striped one was tied to – make sure you tie down the orange ones the same way). Now go to the phone jack your DSL modem is plugged into and remove the blue pair and tie down the orange (again paying attention to the striped and solid). That should work.
Hi Ray,
Just got back from vacation…Acapulco was great!
Before I left I spoke with VerizonDSL and they informed that to replace the current service with the dry loop I need to discontinue the current service and it will take a week to installed the dry loop. I am completing some online chores (bill paying, etc.) before I give the go ahead to VerizonDSL.
Why can’t the above-stated solution for Jon work for me? Thanks.
Hey. I know this thread hasn’t been updated in a few months but I am just now finding it.
I just singed up for this service today and now I am getting concerned.
I am allowed to make and receive calls normally correct? I understand that if my internet goes out it won’t work but other than that no problems?
Also I have my internet through my cable company, therefore it is connected to a router. That router will route to the new Tmobile one correct and still be able to connect the internet to my computer?
Thanks!
Yeah William, everything should work out great with your setup. Just connect the “internet” port on the t-mobile router into any port on your router connected to the cable modem.
@ray
I have orange, yellow, blue, white and black wires attached a the outside box (old type) and to the jack(s) inside. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.
@Jon I still need to separate the voice from the dsl. I have orange, yellow, blue, white and black wires attached to the outside box (old type) and to the jack(s) inside. If I just ask the phone co. to turn off the voice, I am afraid they will turn both off. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.