T-Mobile @Home Service Problems
My friend, Brett, and I both traded in our Vonage service for T-Mobile’s new @Home VoIP solution. How could we not?
Vonage was running about $30/month for their unlimited domestic plan (fees and taxes included), whereas T-Mobile advertised basically the same service for $10/month (so long as you also have a $39.99+ mobile plan). Add that all up and it’s $240/year.
The T-Mobile ATA (analog telephone adaptor) is a Linksys WRTU54G-TM with combines a router, firewall, wireless B/G Wi-Fi access point, and 4-port switch with the ATA functions (two phone lines with two SIM slots). This meant that I could get rid of my Netgear router/firewall/WAP/switch and the Vonage ATA. Less equipment usually means less heat, fewer potential points of failure, and typically uses less power (note, I haven’t actually measured heat output nor power consumption of the two solutions, I’m only making generalizations).
I had some fairly substantial complications getting setup initially but once the LNP (local number porting)was (fully) complete I thought I’d be all set with Vonage-esque reliability.
Recently we’ve notices a rather peculiar trend: we’ll go to make a phone call and won’t have a dial-tone. A check on the ATA shows all lights blinking away happily, internet traffic is still buzzing away, wireless traffic is still getting through. For all intents and purposes, the ATA is doing everything except being an ATA. After I unplug the ATA (wait 15 seconds) and plug it back in, I have a dial-tone within 90 seconds. Apparently something is happening to interrupt the registration between the ATA and T-Mobile’s servers. I don’t know if this is an issue with the ATA (I’d assume not, since all other functions are working), the Internet/ISP (I’d assume not, since all other internet traffic is flowing), or something on T-Mobile’s end.
In any event, I shared my experience with my buddy, Brett. He says he’s experiencing the same thing about once a month. My experience is a bit more frequent than that.
Anyone else having this type of problem with T-Mobile’s @Home service?
Posted in Experimentation, Internet, Joe, T-Mobile, finances, technology
October 16th, 2008 at 21:04
I have experienced those same problems too, although it has gotten less the longer we’ve had the service. I have comcast as my isp and I’ve heard there are problems between comcast and tmobile. I also have problems keeping my laptop wireless connection stable.
October 30th, 2008 at 16:35
I just finished reading about one happy experience (http://howastute.blogspot.com/2008/08/t-mobile-home-experience.html) when I linked into this blog. Beyond the initial set-up woes that Blogger had, we have quite a different long-term experience here.
I use Vonage and have been thinking about switching over to T-Mobile @ Home. Unlike Joe here and the other Blogger, I am not too comfortable with going into settings and turning things on and off. Maybe I’ll pay a visit to the local T-MObile store here and ask them at length about customer experiences. At $24.95/mo, Vonage is a bit more expensive but it has been rock-solid reliable once once I got past the set-up gremlins I too experienced about 5 months ago.
I first checked with T-Mobile about four months ago about @Home but I had just been with Vonage for about a month and a half and did not want to go through another set-up ordeal like I had with Vonage. My ordeal only lasted about four hours total so looking for Joe’s expereince with T-Mobile gives me pause about using @Home.
Yesterday, I paid a visit to the same T-Mobile store and learned that while the price was the same, they had instituted a 10% re-stocking fee. That tells me something right there….
October 31st, 2008 at 10:34
@Michael,
Don’t get me wrong, Vonage is AWESOME. They were the company that really shook up the whole telephone industry… and I’m thankful to them for it.
The reason for my switch was not due to dissatisfaction with Vonage or their service, rather, for their price.
For 1/3 the cost of Vonage, I’m getting almost the same thing through T-Mobile.
In my experience with T-Mobile @Home, the call quality is not quite as good as Vonage, the uptime is not quite as good as Vonage, and the user-options and configuration options can’t hold a candle to Vonage.
Once it’s up and running though, it does what I need it to do, and the price is much better.
If Vonage were to cut their prices by 2/3, I’d switch back in a heartbeat! I think $9.99 for local and domestic long-distance (with voicemail, call forwarding, etc, etc) is really the right price. Anything more than that is “greedy.”
Thank you for your comments! Don’t be a stranger!
- http://www.JoeLevi.com