T-Mobile Expands Its Wi-Fi Cellphone Line

By Joseph Palenchar -- TWICE, 2/9/2009

Bellevue, Wash. — T-Mobile is expanding the selection of Wi-Fi-equipped phones that work with its Unlimited Hotspot Calling service, which lets subscribers place unlimited Wi-Fi calls through T-Mobile's public Wi-Fi hot spots and through home Wi-Fi routers optimized for the service.

The phones, both available today, are the HTC-made Shadow and Nokia 7510 at $149 and $49, respectively. They bring to 10 the selection of phones capable of working with the carrier's Unlimited Hot Spot Calling service, which costs $10/month on top of the company's voice plans. Prices for both models require a two-year service agreement, and the Shadow price adds a data plan requirement.

Both models will be available in multiple colors online through the carrier and through select T-Mobile-owned stores and indirect retailers.

The Shadow is T-Mobile's first Windows Mobile-based PDA phone to incorporate the Wi-Fi calling feature. The Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional model features touchscreen, slide-down 20-key QWERTY keypad with predictive text, 2-megapixel camera, QVGA display, multimedia playback and threaded SMS.

The Nokia 7510 is a flip phone with three changeable faceplates, hidden-until-lit external front display, music and video player, and 2-megapixel camera.

The Unlimited Hotspot Calling service, launched initially as the HotSpot@Home service, went national in 2007 ago with only two phones. The service is designed to take traffic off congested cellular networks and encourage people to use their cellphone as their primary home phone without using up cellphone minutes and without suffering from poor in-home cellular coverage. Calls are handed off from the Internet to the cellular network when the subscriber roams out of range.