T-Mobile today announced the T-Mobile Personal CellSpot. The announcement came at T-Mobile's Un-carrier 7 event in San Francisco. The theme of the event was Wi-Fi and this new accessory from T-Mobile will put a "cell tower" directly into your living room.
The T-Mobile Personal CellSpot will be available to customers with just a $25 deposit. There will be no additional cost, nor hassle. Users simple just need to plug it in and use it. Prepaid customers can get one for $99 sans deposit. Those who are prepaid customers can nag the CellSpot for just $99. It's worth noting that it also works as a regular router!
The CellSpot will act as a T-Mobile tower in your house, improving coverage thanks to Wi-Fi tech.
Anyone out there interesting in improving their T-Mobile coverage with the CellSpot?
Reader comments
CellSpot brings a T-Mobile tower into your home
Trouble with these plug in mini towers is you have to pay for them , they use your home telephone line which goes directly to t-mobile ect without any use of its mobile network and you get fully charged , which is wrong as you don't use the mobile network , you pay for one of these plug in's because thé network is crap and does not and will never cover your home or work ,
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That means CellSpot mean to me? Since it use Wi-Fi to improve the connection; do I get better?????? what? If I use wi-fi along with my smartphone it that not the same?
It's really nothing more than an ordinary router.
Too bad Tmobile is focused on gimmicks rather than having a real network. ATT/Straight Talk ftw.
It's not actually a femtocell though, it's just a Wireless Router with a built-in QoS for priortizing VOIP traffic. Something any decent consumer router can already accomplish.
I think its great if that network is LTE
Service still sucks and they won't get any good WP. The ones they have, the OEMs abandon them leaving those who purchased then with a bitter taste in their mouths towards WP so they can sell them an iPhone..... It seems to be T-Mobiles objective anyway
In Vegas I'll need one in every room and two in the bathroom this signal is so poor. But good news that T-Mo recognized there is a problem and doing something to solve it.
However, if you were in the market for the quality of router this router gives. Then $25 for postpaid or $99 pre-paid isn't bad. The equivalent Asus Router (dual band AC) is going for $125 and up!
Your phone must be pre-equipped with TMobile WiFi Calling for the Personal Tower to work. So, Un-Locked Phones like the Lumia 1520.3 on Newegg are a NO GO!
Sold! Take my money!
Yeah the real question is when will T-Mo have a windows phone that does Wifi calling to VoLTE seamless handoffs.
They are rumored to get the HTC M8
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/t-mobile-to-expand-windows-phone-lineup-with-the-htc-one-m8-for-windows-this-holiday.htm
Just to clarify, as the article makes this confusing. T-Mobile has stated (on its website and Facebook page) that this is just a Wi-Fi router optimized for Wi-Fi Calling. It isn't a signal booster and it can only be used if the device supports Wi-Fi Calling (just like any other router). The announcement was very misleading, and IMO the "new" features didn't need to have such a large announcement. Basically the announcement was August was an awesome month for T-Mobile, VoLTE rolled out nationwide a while ago, Wi-Fi calling is better and hands off to VoLTE, and did we mention August was an amazing month for us?
Thinking about it for the office. Make a bunch of us happy
There was a 2 antenna solution for android I read about earlier this year that allows you & another person with 1 of the other antennae to text
Yeah we've had that techno before, it's called two cans between a string and it worked.
Too much radiation to have mobile towers in your living room...highly cancerous :/
It's a WiFi router.
It's lame that this is necessary, and even more lame that it uses your home internet which you already pay someone else for to boost your signal. Why am I paying for t-mobile then?
THe carriers act like they are doing us all a favor by offering fentocells for sale, but in reality, they make more money from us and avoid spending money having to upgrade their network covergae with additional cell towers, which is what they should be doing.
I was just thinking about the lack of Wi-Fi calling from phones ported to T-Mobile. I have the 1520 and I just moved to an area where outside you can get a decent but not amazing signal. But the issue is when I go inside. I lose my cellular reception and without the Wi-Fi calling on this phone it becomes useless.
This will be a big help and have no problem paying a $25 deposit in order to have that functionality.
Now the next thing they need to focus on. Stop letting AT&T getting all the exclusives for Windows Phone. iPhone and Galaxy aren't everything...
Your 1520 still will not work with this... It must have pre-installed Tmobile Wifi Calling. This is basically an offer for a cheap (yet GREAT QUALITY) wifi router. It assures Tmobile that you are using quality equiptment starting from your own "Personal" infrastructure (your home).
Best and worst company for windows phone. Great coverage and amazing 30$ monthly plan. Three WP phones only and one already EOLed and no plans to send cyan out any time soon. TMo users, factory unlocked phones and bring it in or jump in the preview for developers bandwagon.
No plan to send cyan? Are you derp? It stated fall by their twitter announcement and covered here on wpcentral
Not anytime soon No.
Last time they announced about Cyan they said summer. Watch fall pass by and they say winter. e.e
Personally, I'll believe it when I see it. There is no reason for T-Mobile to still have a hold on the Cyan update, other than to make the 635 look more attractive.
Remember they do not do Updates.
Can I use it outside the country?
Thats pretty well priced. We use TMobiles WiFi calling because of poor indoor coverage but it annoys us when we are heading out somewhere, guarantee disconnect when it switches back to cell service. This should eliminate that. Though I would need to be sure it covers our property and allows for more than one phone at a time.
T-Mo microcell haha!
What does it look like cause it sounds really cool
With the newly announced plans that have wifi texting and phone calls, is this even relevant? (assuming you have a compatible phone with wifi texting/calls)
lot of wifi in peoples home are poor for wifi calls. They have them budget 40 doller routers
Very funny, T-Mobile, now give me Cyan.
My lumia 810 never even got Black.
Is this a femtocell or is it just a wifi access point?
Just a Wi-Fi access point with QOS (quality of service) preconfigured for Wi-Fi-Calling.
By improving your signal do you mean from anywhere a user may be or just I'm your home? (home improvement)
Anywhere home wise with Internet.
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Then where's WinPhone mR. Tmo??? Me with my couple of friends will be turning from you if theres no lumias coming this fall...goodbye.;(
Sold
Absolutely, my new place has really bad signal.
Does anyone know if they have mobile towers? IE mini towers you can place in your car or truck?
A tower requires an internet connection to work. So if you were just driving around with components to make a cell tower with a power source applied, with out that backhaul connection no connectivity would really work.
There are boosters that Wilson makes but they are pricey.
Nice! This could alleviate the lack of wifi calling that one gets when they port a phone to TMo rather than buying a new phone from them. That has been a concern of mine because I intend to port my 1520 over there but have held off due to no wifi calling. Now I just gotta check frequencies that this device offers.
This is just a WiFi router as it turns out.
Att does the same thing, its so useful!
Yep I have an ATT microcell currently. It is quite nice. Helps with basement coverage.
Att gave me one for free.
But it's not as was as just plugging it in. You have to add all the #s that you want to be able to use it. And set it up on your account.
I had to pay $199 for my AT&T microcell. Their "map" showed that I should have good coverage, but without the microcell I miss more calls than I receive, and I can guarantee that every call sounds terrible and will be dropped. I'd have to go outside to have even a remote chance of holding onto a call.
And even with the microcell I still constantly drop calls.
I'd love to switch back to T-mo, but my cell phone is paid for by my company, so I don't have much of a choice.
I had that same problem. Right before a move I checked the map to where we were moving and figured ""Good" that means I'll have "good coverage" so I upgrade, moved, and found out what "good" meant. Complained to AT&T, got nowhere.
Filed a complaint to the FCC. AT&T said I am out of my contract and can cancel for no charge.
File a complaint. You might get out of your contract and HOPEFULLY if enough "Good" coverage victims complain, the FCC will force them (and other carriers) to NOT LIE ABOUT THEIR MAPS
Very cool, I will use it, especially at my in-laws house where they have zero reception.
Thank God I get a string signal at home but this will be useful @ my moms, as she gets' terrible reception in and around her home.
All aboard the Uncarrier Train.!!!
And I would run what windows phone on it?
The 635 is working quite well for many of us.
635 here too.. Flawless.
Some people want something better than the 635 but T-Mobile doesn't care about what their customers are asking for, the wavy to keep the iPhone and Android as premier and WP as low end
That's my experience. They pulled the 925 without having a replacement ready. The 635 is indeed a nice phone, but it is a definite downgrade for 925 owners. Curiously, they still sell the 521, which is even older than the 925. The geniuses responsible for that decision need to be fired.
HTC One M8 for windows is coming, and the rumors for a while of a Lumia 1525
L521, L635, L810, L925 Branded. Also available unlocked from various Canadian and European Carriers the L920, L1020 and the L1520.3.
Not the 810. No Wi-Fi Calling there.
The cellspot will look like a cell tower to your phone. It'll just communicate upstream to the cell network via your internet connection.
Nope, it's just a router
With the added feature of its QOS (quality of service) settings preconfigured to prioritize Wi-Fi calling. But yes, basically an ordinary wireless router.
Most people won't our can't afford to buy unlocked phones
The end of lifed 810. Stuck on Amber.
This is why tmobile is the best. Now get some windows phones
And that is why Tmobile is the worst, poor selection of Windows Phones! :)
I agree, T-Mobile rules. Luckily we can use the 1520.3. Wish they had their own high end model though.
You can bring your own phone but then it wont have wifi calling. (which was the majority of this event.)
How would it not? What I take from it is the mini tower hooks to the wifi and the phone connects to the mini tower. Hence wifi calling.
Byod can probably use the cellspot but not WiFi calling. That is annoying.
It's actually an ac WiFi router. It does not broadcast or receive cell signals. Total marketing bullshit.
The phone has to have a T-mobile wifi calling app if it's not iOS.
I know @ least for Samsung from what I briefly read on xda you can side load the app for it
Don't worry T-Mobile is getting HTC One M8 Windows! Look it up :)
http://newsroom.t-mobile.com/news/t-mobile-to-expand-windows-phone-lineup-with-the-htc-one-m8-for-windows-this-holiday.htm
AT&T has had this for ages.
You can get a highend $200 AC Gigabit router from AT&T for $25 deposit?
I got a 3G microcell from AT&T for free. I just asked for it.
So has T-Mobile. I've had one from T-Mobile for free going on 5 years now.
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Because their own coverage is so poor it might not reach you at home?
Agreed
Had this on att for a while now