T-Mobile USA is breaking new ground. On July 2, the U.S. wireless calling division of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom is introducing home-phone calling for as low as $10 a month, a fraction of the price charged by traditional phone companies including AT&T and Internet-calling providers such as Vonage. Analysts have said T-Mobile’s @Home is really targeted at users of rival wireless calling services.

Watch out, Verizon Wireless. I’ve tested @Home, and I’m impressed with the results. Akin to an World Wide Web calling service, T-Mobile @Home routes calls via a home broadband connection. The service is available for $10 a month to T-Mobile subscribers who are already paying at least $40 a month for their wireless calls. The essential Wi-Fi router costs $50 for customers who sign a two-year contract; otherwise it’s $150. [And remember that you’ll still need a high-speed World Wide Web connection.]

What You Get

That monthly 10 bucks goes a expanded way. Besides unlimited local and

long-distance calling, you plus get voice mail, signal forwarding, three-way conference calling, shout waiting, and-:for phones with displays-:caller ID. The service additionally keeps a log of calls made and received on your My T-Mobile Web page, where wireless customers plus can check balances and pay bills.

There’s other convenient overlap with T-Mobile wireless calling. The same number works for checking voice mail [123], and T-Mobile puts home and wireless calling on the same bill. [For an additional $10 a month, the service plus lets you assemble unlimited cell-phone calls from home.]

Router set-up is a snap, too. Slide a CD into your computer for step-by-step directions on connecting the device both to your home broadband and to a landline. I was done in 10 minutes flat, a personal best. Installing Web-calling services is often nettlesome and can take hours, involving calls to customer service.

Best of all, I found signal quality…

Orginal post by Top Tech News