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?
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.
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….
@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
I was paying the ~$30/month for Vonage (including taxes) for several years. I had a LinkSys wireless router, that was also the Vonage VOIP box. I had no problems with the router, but frequent problems with voice quality. When I called Vonage they blamed Brighthouse (the internet cable provider) and when I called Brighthouse they blamed Vonage. Brighthouse offered a ~$30/month deal on their home phone, so I signed up, and I was really pleased. But after a few months, I discovered the T-Mobile @Home deal, which would cost me ~$10/month (since I was already a T-Mobile customer). They even waived the $50 fee for the Linksys router, and gave it to me. A 2-week trial period with no strings attached, and then a 2 year contract. Of course it was fine for 2 weeks, and I signed up. I now have 4 T-Mobile cell phone lines (one for everyone in the family) and the T-Mobile @Home. I've been with T-Mobile cell phones for about 5 years. Then the problems started with the router. I can hear the people calling me fine, but they can't hear me. The voice is choppy, and every other word is dropped. When I do a speed test on the computer, this is usually a result of poor uplink (<200kbps instead of the usual 500kbps). Bypass the router and plug directly into the Brighthouse modem, and it's fine (just no phone service). I tried calling T-Mobile to complain, and had to call back on the cell phone. Several iterations of powerdown everything and power it back up- and fixes the problem (good uplink speed after) – but that sucks to have to do that 3 times a week. One time, I could not fix the problem and called to complain (on the cell). Got transferred to Linksys, and re-flashed the firmware in the router. This fixed the problem temporarily, but it came back several days later. I finally got tired of this, and complained to T-Mobile. They are going to replace the router, with a new one, but have to charge me $10 S&H. And I have to ship the old router back UPS in pre-paid envelope. If this new router has the same problem, and I want to break my 2-year contract, it will cost me another $200.
Be afraid, be very afraid. I signed up for this service in July, 2008. It appeared to work alright w/ some outages until January, 2009 when it was down for minutes, hours, days. When the problem occurs it requires you to reset your router each and every time. It was so bad I had to set up a surge protector under my desk, so I could simply use my foot to turn the router on and off, on and off, on and off…. When I called to complain, t-mobile told me they were not aware of this problem, well to be frank they are liars. There are postings all over the place, including their own forum on how unreliable this service really is.
They sent me a new router, knowing full well this wouldn’t solve the problem – the problem was I believed them. Why wouldn’t I, I had VOIP for years from other providers with no real problems. Well – same problems. You are on the phone and all of sudden the person on the other end cannot hear you – reset the router. You call them back or they call you and it drops again – reset the router. You do it a few more times – same thing. Like I said it may be minutes but more likely hours and in the end days at a time. It also takes your internet service with it. Linksys forum also has many postings, look up “no blue light”.
So I call again – told my case was closed – really, no one called to see if it was working. Told you have to start at the lower level customer service all over again. Email CEO, get call from executive response team. Now they are angry, combative, abusive and threatening – yes, threatening to “investigate” my phone calls or how I use my phone – I told them – have at it. Their executive response person Beckett spoke over me continually – actually yelling at me. I told her I did not want any more contact with her – find someone else. Oh – did I mention she thought it was funny I had this kind of phone service. Even though the phone continually disconnected while I was speaking with her – she tried to claim it wasn’t their problem and they still expected me to pay the bill. Anyway, Beckett had the audacity to keep calling me and I told her emphatically not to call. She said she would continue to call – oh, really – had to inform her this was harassment in writing. Then someone else called but the call kept dropping and they didn’t call back.
Senior tech Kevin calls and told me he had the same issue, but it wasn’t as bad these days – not as bad – are you kidding me! He was supposed to come to me and bring a new router – well he never showed up. Then a letter from t-mobile they are terminating my service and keeping my activation fees, the money for phones and equipment, but we still want you to pay the balance on your bill or we won’t release your number. Keep in mind I paid all along, believing they were honestly attempting to fix the problem – because they said so – like I said – LIARS. In April when the service became unbearable, leaving me without my internet service – I told them I would pay when they fixed the problem – therefore I was disputing my bill. American consumers have to stop being doormats – we have let this happen. Not me – not anymore. I reported them to the FCC, BBB, AG and small claims. An important fact is that you cannot call 911 should you need to when you have no service or it disconnects every minute. Well at least that would get the cops here, since they would figure we were making prank calls to 911. Totally disgraceful company.
Did you ever get this issue resolved. I had the same problem constantly and T-Mobile was either unwilling or unable to resolve it. It is definitely on T-Mobiles end as numerous consumers had the same issues. I finally had to contact FCC and Attorney General as T-Mobile just got nasty the more I complained. I guess you are out of line if you actually want phone service. Just curious how your issue turned out.
I've been experiencing the same issue for the past year. T-Mobile has been constantly blaming my ISP which is AT&T (fiber optic). It really is getting so frustrating. I initially had Vonage and never had any service interruptions even if I was using the phone for 8 hours constantly. Sometimes, T-Mobile's ATA take a few tries of unplugging before it gets it blue ligt back on. They really should be addressing this issue properly.
I really encourage people to contact their Attorney General and the FCC, which does some regulation on VOIP services. T-Mobile shows no inclination on being a responsible company in this situation and needs to be held accountable. All they care about is that you pay the bill, whether it works or not.
I've been experiencing the same issue for the past year. T-Mobile has been constantly blaming my ISP which is AT&T (fiber optic). It really is getting so frustrating. I initially had Vonage and never had any service interruptions even if I was using the phone for 8 hours constantly. Sometimes, T-Mobile's ATA take a few tries of unplugging before it gets it blue ligt back on. They really should be addressing this issue properly.
I really encourage people to contact their Attorney General and the FCC, which does some regulation on VOIP services. T-Mobile shows no inclination on being a responsible company in this situation and needs to be held accountable. All they care about is that you pay the bill, whether it works or not.