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

T-Mobile USA Inc. announced a $10-per-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 USA 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 USA retail outlets.
The move follows an earlier announcement that T-Mobile USA 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 with unlimited plans for $100 per month (although neither of those offerings includes text messaging); Sprint Nextel Corp. responded with its own unlimited offering that included nearly all the features the carrier offers. (See story on Page 6.)
And Talk Forever is only the latest attempt from T-Mobile USA 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 service, coupled with a 1,000-monthly-minutes plan from T-Mobile USA, marks a 45% discount from a comparable bundle from Verizon Wireless, according to Pali Research’s Walter Piecyk. And combining Internet voice with Wi-Fi and cellular could ease traffic on the carrier’s network.
“T-Mobile customers can pay an additional $10 per month for unlimited wireless minutes on any open Wi-Fi signal, which we believe would offload at least 30% of the customers’ minutes from their GSM network,” Piecyk wrote. “In this scenario the monthly cost to the T-Mobile customer rises to $60 but the Verizon customer’s bundle rises to $110 in order to replicate the number of minutes being used by the T-Mobile customer ($80 for a 1,350 minute rate plan). Savings of $50 per month would seem to be a compelling service offering, especially since it provides excellent in-home coverage.”
Unlike HotSpot@Home, Talk Forever allows subscribers to keep their home phone numbers as they discontinue fixed-line service at home. T-Mobile plans to bring the new service to other markets following the two-city trial.