Mitchell Surprenant

So, my contract with T-Mobile ended. Or will end. In any case, I was due for a brand new phone and a brand-spankin’ new contract. Though T-Mobile has been very nice to me, I wanted to see what else was out there. So I set out on my quest asking around to Sprint, Verizon, US Cellular — the normal suspects. Most had plans that were higher than T-Mobile for about the same service.

But in every single conversation with a representative, they were stumped when I asked them a simple question:

“T-Mobile has wi-fi calling on all their wireless phones. Do you guys have any phones that do that?”

All I got was blank stares, so I continued.

“Well, with my BlackBerry 8120 , if I don’t get signal (which is common in small towns when I travel or when indoors (read: The National in Richmond) my phone jumps on to wireless networks to make calls.”

I don’t want to get too technical, but it is just that simple. If there’s a more-powerful 802.11 (read: wi-fi) signal than the cellular network, my phone jumps onto it and from there I can make calls. It’s called UMA and it’s a killer feature. Instead of calls/texts/internet on T-Mobile’s network, I can do it on a wireless network at wireless speeds.

What I got from most of the reps is, “Oh, well… our Wi-Fi phones let you text and browse the internet.” No, that’s not what I mean. I want to make calls when I have terrible signal. DO YOU HAVE THIS FEATURE? “No.”

Slightly off-topic: Well, as it turns out, most of the companies do offer something similar, and it’s called a Femtocell. AT&T sells one for $150. What does it do? Well, you buy it ($$$), then hook it up to your internet ($$$) and it’ll let you make calls on your wireless network, while the company charges you for USE OF YOUR OWN INTERNET CONNECTION. JKOnTheRun puts it nicely, as does Gizmodo. T-Mobile actually leverages their use of this network with their @Home service, which for $10 a month you can make unlimited UMA calls (Get it… you’re @ Home?)

But this isn’t exactly what I’m talking about. And none of the carriers (save T-Mobile) who have Wi-Fi phones offer the service to make calls over Wi-Fi without extra equipment. The phone I have is over 2 years old now, meaning the technology is at LEAST that old. And not ONE of the reps in the 4 stores I went to knew anything about the feature?

So, anyway, I re-upped with T-Mobile on a better plan than I had, and I’m getting a Bold 9700. Pretty friggin sweet.

Thank you, T-Mobile, for not charging me out the ass for this kick-ass feature that apparently doesn’t get around to other providers.

But do any of you in the cell phone business know what the hell I’m talking about? Does this just not get around to the other companies?