T-Mobile USA intros Internet calling: $10-per-month plan part of No. 4 carrier’s wireline push

T-Mobile USA Inc. announced a $10-a-month unlimited calling plan for its growing fixed-line effort.
The operator launched Talk Forever Home Phone, an Internet service with unlimited local and domestic long distance calls. The offering is available in Dallas and Seattle to T-Mobile wireless users with single-line plans of $40 or higher or family plans of $50 or higher.
Talk Forever subscribers will also have to buy a $50 router, and the carrier is suggesting — but not demanding — that Talk Forever users purchase a $60 VTech phone at T-Mobile retail outlets.
The move follows the announcement earlier this week that T-Mobile will offer an unlimited voice, data and text-messaging plan to wireless subscribers for $100 month. Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility had begun the flurry of activity earlier this week with unlimited plans for $100 a month (although neither of those offerings includes text messaging); industry onlookers are speculating as to how — and when — Sprint Nextel Corp. will counter.
And Talk Forever is only the latest attempt from T-Mobile to get users to sever their landline services. The operator last summer unveiled HotSpot@Home, a $10-a-month unlimited calling plan for users with Wi-Fi-enabled handsets.
The latest offering allows subscribers to keep their home phone numbers, however, as they discontinue fixed-line service at home. T-Mobile plans to bring Talk Forever to other markets following the two-city trial.