T-Mobile Hearts VoWiFi

After backtracking on their former feelings about VoIP (banned its use over their data network), they’re now apparently big on offering VoWiFi (VoIP over Wi-Fi) over the new AWS spectrum they acquired in a recent US FCC auction. They’ve already upgraded their equipment and network in New York City. Given they spent US$4+B and plan to spend nearly $3B more, I’d say that T-Mobile now hearts VoIP.

T-Mobile’s version of VoWiFi satisfies the UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) specs. This ensures that an in-progress call on either network (cellular or Wi-Fi) will be seamlessly handed over to the other network, so that a call can continue. They expect their VoWiFi and several mobile video services to increase their subscriber base by 12-17M people by 2015.

In the UK, T-Mobile has new rates for their data cards (laptop). One plan offers “unlimited” cellular Wi-Fi usage at GBP 29/mth and 3 Gb of data bandwidth. VoIP isn’t allowed, and users who ignore that might find reduced connection speeds. VoIP usage cots an extra GBP 15/mth and provides a cap of 10Gb bandwidth. Sure beats my $100/mth 250Mb cap. [via IP Democracy, ZD Net UK] Subscribers with access to municipal Wi-Fi will likely get the most out of such plans.