T-Mobile is taking the gloves off in its battle against wireline voice carriers. They will take their T-Mobile@Home service nationwide on July 2nd. T-Mobile has been testing T-Mobile@Home in Dallas and Seattle and according to their press release, "...virtually all customers (97 percent) who had a traditional landline phone service reported dropping that service since adopting T-Mobile @Home." T-Mobile@Home is a VoIP powered voice service that uses a customer’s home broadband connection for connectivity. It’s priced at $10/month, and provides unlimited local and long-distance calling as well as basic features including voicemail, call forwarding and call waiting. The service is only available to T-Mobile customers who have a wireless contract of $39.99/month or more and requires the purchase of a $50 modem. The service utilizes UMA technology, which is also used for their Hotspot@Home service.

T-Mobile@Home offers some interesting competitive implications. It remains to be seen how consumers will react, but it seems like a decent value add to say to a customer who is buying a wireless service contract, we’ll throw in home phone service for an extra $10/month. That’s a pretty compelling differentiating feature that other wireless carriers can’t match right now. Bring your own broadband VoIP players like Vonage and Packet8 also seem vulnerable in this T-Mobile scenario. If I’m an existing T-Mobile and Vonage customer right now, why wouldn’t I switch to T-Mobile? Last I checked, Vonage didn’t have a $10/month plan. At the end of the day this strategy is more about maintaining and growing their core wireless business, than trying to take market share from traditional wireline voice business. Wireless providers are "pulling as many rabbits out of a hat" as possible these days to maintain and hopefully grow their business. The wireless market in the U.S. is approaching saturation. Expect to see more interesting strategies like T-Mobile@Home, as wireless carriers try to meet expectations of stakeholders in a sure to slow wireless growth market. Early indications are encouraging for T-Mobile. They tell PC World that 45% of T-Mobile@Home users in the Seattle and Dallas trials switched from other mobile operators.

T-Mobile added the Samsung t739 Katalyst handset to their Hotspot@Home product line. The Katalyst is Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) capable, meaning it can route calls over a Wi-Fi connection. The Katalyst fills a gap between the existing low end and high end handsets for their Hotspot@Home service. The Katalyst offers a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a 220 x 176 display.

Read more at this Engadget post.

RIM announced the launch of a dual mode Blackberry, which will operate on both GSM and Wi-Fi networks. The new Blackberry 8820 will launch on the AT&T network. It didn’t take long for RIM to get this new device to market. We reported about the FCC approval of the Blackberry WI-Fi device on July 9th. The new 8820 Blackberry also supports unlicensed mobile access (UMA) technology, which allows for seamless roaming between GSM and Wi-Fi. Although AT&T’s plan for UMA are somewhat unclear at this point. AT&T is expected to bring the 8820 to market later this summer.

Cincinnati Bell recently announced its unlicensed mobile access (UMA) network strategy. UMA is a promising development which uses a convergence of multiple wireless frequencies to provide seamless mobile wireless access in a given territory. Cincinnati Bell claims to be first at launching a commercial UMA network, although T-Mobile has been trialing one for sometime. A subscriber’s mobile device automatically senses the best network to use for service, which can include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or a traditional GSM mobile wireless network. For example, while on the road in a car, a subscriber would probably utilize a GSM network, but while indoors, their handset would seamlessly switch to Wi-Fi. Such a network conceivably provides better coverage by automatically selecting the best network to use, while also providing the network operator more efficiency by offloading traffic to wi-fi networks where possible.

UMA adds promise to carriers who may not have significant licensed spectrum assets. As the technology matures, carriers without a current mobile strategy may find UMA provides them the opportunity to launch mobile wireless services. It’s too early to predict, but UMA may prove to influence the competitive landscape, by allowing carriers of all sizes and niches to offer a wireless play, positioning them to compete more effectively.