T-Mobile offers $10 home phone service

Following in the footsteps of Vonage, T-Mobile is offering wireless customers an add-on service that will give them unlimited home voice service for $10 a month.

The new T- Mobile @Home service, which has been tested in Dallas and Seattle and officially launches July 2, lets customers route their voice traffic from their existing telephones through their broadband Internet connection. Subscribers do not have to purchase a new phone, but instead can hook up their existing phones to a T-Mobile @Home HiPort wireless router that is configured for home phone connections. The routers can be purchased for $49.99 and a two-year service agreement, T-Mobile says.

"For years, the traditional landline companies have been great at consistently delivering one thing to their customers -- a high monthly bill," says T-Mobile USA CEO Robert Dotson. "T-Mobile is now delivering the best-priced home phone service in America for our existing and future customers."

The new T-Mobile service is significantly different from its Hotspot @Home offering that gave customers unlimited VoIP calling but required them to use a T-Mobile phone with Wi-Fi capabilities, and route their calls over their home Wi-Fi connection. T-Mobile @Home allows customers not only to use their existing landline phones for calls but also to keep their existing phone numbers.

Subscribers to the @Home service must also subscribe to one of T-Mobile's regular wireless voice plans, which currently start at $29.99 a month for individual basic service; family plans start at $59.99 a month for basic service. The @Home service also supports such features as call waiting, caller ID, three-way conferencing, voice mail and call forwarding, T-Mobile says.