T-Mobile announce Wi-Fi calling in Europe

This sounds like a very big idea to me… (from the New York Times)

If you’re willing to pay $10 a month on top of a regular T-Mobile voice plan, you get a special cellphone. When you’re out and about, it works like any other phone; calls eat up your monthly minutes as usual.

But when it’s in a Wi-Fi wireless Internet hot spot, this phone offers a huge bargain: all your calls are free. You use it and dial it the same as always — you still get call hold, caller ID, three-way calling and all the other features — but now your voice is carried by the Internet rather than the cellular airwaves.

This functionality has been possible for a while and I have a few friends who are doing it using a combination of Skype and home Wi-Fi. Of course they need to have an (expensive) Wi-Fi enabled cell phone and have the technical know-how to load the Skype mobile client. By offering this as a default feature T-Mobile make Wi-Fi calling child’s play.

In Canada, where many of us pay the same company for our internet service and our cell phone bill, this would be extremely appealing. Sadly, I think it will be a number of years before this service graces our fair shores.