T-Mobile cuts HotSpot @Home price in half

I’ve been looking at T-Mobile’s HotSpot @Home service since it was first rolled out. It seemed an ingenious idea to me at the time. With VoIP calls on the rise, T-Mobile managed a way to get WiFi built into a few handsets. And then they created a system whereby you can make *free calls over the Internet from your cell phone. Of course, they were charging $20 per month for the feature, but it no only includes home calling, but free calling from any T-Mobile HotSpot, or wherever there’s an unsecured WiFi spot (though that might not be entirely legal). This week, the company has announced that they’re downing the cost to $10.

This move comes on the heels of AT&T announcing that they’ll now be providing WiFi hotspot at Starbucks coffee shops. This was previously T-Mobile’s domain. With the lost free hotspots from which people can call, T-Mobile had little recourse in this matter.

The good news for existing HotSpot subscribers is that they’ll be able to use their handsets for free with AT&T’s WiFi system at Starbucks. This agreement will last five years, by which time I expect it won’t matter much anyway. Customers who sign up for HotSpot at this point or in the future will not have access to the Starbucks hotspots.

The bad news is that these existing customers have to call and request their rate be adjusted. I’m not sure how T-Mobile is getting away with this, but if you don’t call, they’ll continue to charge you $20 per month. So yeah, if you currently have HotSpot @Home, call and get your rate changed. And make sure to take advantage of AT&T’s generous five-year offer.

Oh, and it’s now going to be called HotSpot @Home Talk Forever Mobile. Because that is so much better than the original.

[Yahoo! Tech]

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