T-Mobile USA Tests Home Phone Service To Get People To Cut the Cord

T-Mobile USA was one of the first carriers in the U.S. to allow subscribers to roam on to a Wi-Fi Hotspot to avoid using the minutes from their plan. Today, the company is taking it a step further, by allowing subscribers to plug in landline phones to a wireless router to get unlimited calling in the home. Not surprisingly, both services are pushing for landline displacement.

The new Talk Forever Home Phone service, launched today, is being tested in in two markets ??? Seattle and Dallas. The Talk Forever Home Phone is separate from the Talk Forever Mobile service, which allows users to roam on to Wi-Fi. That service launched about seven months ago is national and recently dropped to $10 a month. The new Talk Forever Home Phone plan is also $10 a month. Users will need a wireless router, a broadband connection, and a corded or cordless landline phone. Similar to when you sign up for mobile service, you can set up a new phone number for the home phone service, or you can port your existing home phone number from your current provider.

In one respect, these two options are giving customers an unlimited calling plan option???the hot topic of the week. Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ), AT&T (NYSE: T) and T-Mobile have all come out with their own version of unlimited calling plans for $100 a month this week, and Sprint (NYSE: S) is supposed to come out with an even cheaper one soon. But both these T-Mobile services are offering essentially the same features at a much lower price. To participate in either plan, subscribers must sign up for a $40 plan, which gets you 1,000 minutes. Then for another $10, you get unlimited calling in the home. At $50 a month, that's half what the unlimited plans are asking for.

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