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As T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS) continues on the company’s attack on its competitors, the company held its Uncarrier 7.0 event, representing the company’s next move to help consumers while sticking it to the company’s competitors. During the Uncarrier 7.0 event in San Francisco, the company’s CEO John Legere introduced a multitude of Wi-Fi enabled technologies that will help improve the quality of T-Mobile service.
As a part of Uncarrier 7.0, T-Mobile is going to be enabling Wi-Fi calling on all of the phones that they sell in store, which means that they very likely will not be carrying devices like the Nexus 5 in-store. Most Nexus 5 users will still be unable to make use of T-Moble’s Wi-Fi calling feature, even though it is quite awesome and enables you to make calls using Wi-Fi as if you were connected to a tower. This is perfect for areas with poor to no reception as well as to help improve call quality in areas like your home if you spend a lot of time in your home but still use your smartphone a lot. T-Mobile will also be creating a small JUMP window for any current T-Mobile customers that don’t have a T-Mobile branded device with Wi-Fi hotspot to enable to them to get one if they’d like (costs associated must still be paid). T-Mobile really wants people to leverage Wi-Fi connectivity more, especially when they have pretty decent home connections. They want to expand their network beyond just cell towers.
Part of that is T-Mobile will also be supplying, with a small deposit, home Wi-Fi hotspots. T-Mobile is calling these CellSpots but they’re really just home Wi-Fi networks dedicated for phone connectivity and use regular off-the-shelf ASUS routers with some custom firmware to give voice data priority over all over data. The CellSpots themselves use 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac wireless technology, so there’s nothing really special about them other than the fact that they’re technically free and will help you get better voice coverage in your home.
In addition to that, T-Mobile has also struck up a deal with GoGo in-flight Wi-Fi service to deliver free texting and voicemail service on any GoGo enabled flights. Since calling is effectively banned on all airlines, T-Mobile is only enabling the ability to text your friends for free from 30,000 (or more) feet. While this may not be a huge factor for many, the reality is that GoGo’s Wi-Fi service only enabled internet chat and smartphone internet connectivity, but no text messaging or voicemail.
