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T-Mobile Launches 'Wi-Fi Unleashed' Campaign, Pledges Support for Wi-Fi Calling on All New Smartphones

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T-Mobile today hosted its 7th Un-carrier event where it announced plans for a "Wi-Fi Unleashed" campaign. According to the company, all smartphones going forward will be able to take advantage of the network's Wi-Fi calling and texting, including Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Wi-Fi calling and texting allow users to send and receive calls/texts over a Wi-Fi network, which is useful in areas where there are poor cellular connections. Apple announced Wi-Fi calling support for the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus yesterday.

T-Mobile plans to offer Wi-Fi calling and texting at no additional cost. The company has also deployed a new product for customers who have bad cellular reception in their homes. The T-Mobile Personal CellSpot is a Wi-Fi router that can be used as a primary router or alongside an existing router, prioritizing voice calls and offering HD audio quality for calls. It has 802.11ac support, USB 3.0 ports, and covers up to 3,000 square feet.

tmobilecellspot.jpg
T-Mobile plans to begin selling the Personal CellSpot on September 17. It is available to be leased for free with a $25 refundable deposit, but customers can also purchase it outright for $99. T-Mobile will also be allowing one time upgrades for customers to get a Wi-Fi enabled phone, even those who are not signed up for the JUMP program.

Along with support for Wi-Fi calling and the introduction of the CellSpot, T-Mobile announced that it's entered into a partnership with in-flight wireless provider Gogo, allowing T-Mobile customers to send and receive texts and picture messages on their phones on any flight that includes Gogo wireless service. Gogo in-flight wireless for T-Mobile customers is also free, and will begin on September 17 for compatible devices.

On stage, Legere announced that T-Mobile had 2.75 million gross adds in August of 2014, and 1 million postpaid adds, which represents its biggest postpaid net add in the history of the company. Legere also noted that T-Mobile is gaining subscribers from other carriers at a rapid pace thanks to its Un-carrier initiatives.

T-Mobile's Un-carrier initiatives are an effort to disrupt traditional mobile service. The company began with uncoupling device costs from service costs in 2013, and then went on to offer several additional incentives to encourage customers to switch to the carrier, including paying early termination fees, offering a JUMP! upgrade plan, unlimited texting and 2G data in 100 countries, free streaming music from Spotify, Rdio, iTunes Radio, and Pandora, and one week free trials to test the T-Mobile service.

Article Link: T-Mobile Launches 'Wi-Fi Unleashed' Campaign, Pledges Support for Wi-Fi Calling on All New Smartphones
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2014/09/10/t-mobile-wi-fi-unleashed/
John Legere is awesome.This is basically the whole Steve Jobs cell networks based on wifi
 
I really like this feature alot an hope the other carrier follow T-Mobile's lead.

But I haven't gotten my hopes up.
 
I know this wasn't the sexiest of yesterday's announcements, but I thought it was the most important. The idea of largely leaving "cell minutes" is huge. I'm sure AT&T et al are just thrilled [end sarcasm] with us needing traditional cell minutes even less.

Kudos for T-Mobile for embracing this. Fight the good fight.
 
Question: What's the point of buying a GSM iPhone 6, if CDMA iPhone 6 has support for GSM as well? And with the new congressional allowance for changing carriers post-full-purchase, why choose GSM-only iPhone 6?
 
jclo said:
Me too, have zero cell reception at my house. T-Mobile keeps getting more and more tempting, but hard to give up that AT&T unlimited plan.
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AT&T made it really easy on me when they suddenly redefined the term "unlimited". Moved to T-Mo and have been smiling ever since.
 
I was excited about this until John Legere mentioned that it requires hardware. This may be new for T-mo but it's not a new feature. I already have this with Sprint and have had it for over 2 years. In fact Sprint didn't charge me for it nor am I paying any deposit or monthly fee for it.

Plugs right into my router and I do wifi calling on my iPhone 4S. Can walk right from my house to my car and drive off all on the same call. Well, no T-mo for me. Not compelling enough to leave sprint only to pay full price for a phone.
 
I have T-Mobile but no jump. Does this 1 time upgrade allow me to just give them my old phone if more than half paid off and get a new phone without having to pay the remainder of the old phone?
 
HenryDJP said:
I was excited about this until John Legere mentioned that it requires hardware. This may be new for T-mo but it's not a new feature. I already have this with Sprint and have had it for over 2 years. In fact Sprint didn't charge me for it nor am I paying any deposit or monthly fee for it.

Plugs right into my router and I do wifi calling on my iPhone 4S. Can walk right from my house to my car and drive off all on the same call. Well, no T-mo for me. Not compelling enough to leave sprint only to pay full price for a phone.
Click to expand...

I'm not clear on why I would need additional hardware to enable WiFi calling. My 5s does very well on WiFi calling on iOS 8 with nothing besides my normal router. Is this simply for QoS purposes? If so, most any router can do that.
 
That's what happens when you have a crap network, you push wifi calling so your already paying customers don't have to use a network that barely works.

I switched to them for the past 8 months, with the phones over three different states and if you drive 15 min from any major city you get no data and barely no voice.

It's not worth it unless you stay In the city and never leave.
 
GreenPixel said:
I'm not clear on why I would need additional hardware to enable WiFi calling. My 5s does very well on WiFi calling on iOS 8 with nothing besides my normal router. Is this simply for QoS purposes? If so, most any router can do that.
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Oh, you're not watching the T-mo keynote on CNET right now? That's what they are showing. How does your 5S call directly through Wi-fi? The only way that I know of any phone doing that without hardware is through Skype or another voip service.
 
jclo said:
Me too, have zero cell reception at my house. T-Mobile keeps getting more and more tempting, but hard to give up that AT&T unlimited plan.
Click to expand...

I too have the original unlimited plan from AT&T. A couple of months ago I got the dreaded letter from AT&T that they figured out I was tethering (without the proper plan) and that if I keep it up they'll push me into a regular plan. The tethering of unlimited minutes was really the last reason I've held on to that plan and not jumped to another carrier. Now I'm giving thought to letting it go. I don't know of any other features of being unlimited/jailbreaking that get me excited. If I can't tether unlimited, think I might just let it go. Perhaps try T-Mobile.

Not complaining. I had a good run. Just don't see the value in the original plan any more.
 
So is this router device required to do Wi-Fi calling or is it just a sort of specialized router that offers priority for T-Mobile activity? Would I be able to do Wi-Fi calling on a router I already own?
 
Aspen Excel said:
So is this router device required to do Wi-Fi calling or is it just a sort of specialized router that offers priority for T-Mobile activity? Would I be able to do Wi-Fi calling on a router I already own?
Click to expand...

It can work alongside your existing router.

Think of it as a cell booster with an added wi-fi component.
 
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