T-Mobile Personal CellSpot is now available to help with connections inside the home

By John Callaham
published

T-Mobile is offering its Personal CellSpot accessory for its customers starting today, which should allow them to get a better wireless connection in their home.

Here's T-Mobile's official description of the Personal CellSpot:

T-Mobile's Personal CellSpot is designed to give you a "fullbars" T-Mobile connection – in your basement, workshop, your beach house or anywhere else you have broadband. The patent-pending next-generation Wi-Fi technology we've built into the CellSpot prioritizes voice calls over other Wi-Fi traffic offering a stronger connection, fewer dropped calls and HD Voice like you've never experienced before. And, beyond calling and texting over Wi-Fi, the CellSpot can handle multiple connections making it ideal for data-hungry families and small businesses. With a coverage area of over 3,000 square feet, you'll have everyone covered no matter where they are in your home or small business.

As far as its technical specs, they seem pretty nice:

  • Compliant with 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac standard
  • Dual-band data rates (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) of 1900 Mbps
  • 3 external antennas to extend coverage up to 3000 square feet
  • Encryption: 64/128-bit WEP, WPA/WPA2-PSK, WPA/WPA2-Enterprise, WPS
  • Dual USB ports

T-Mobile customers can get their own Personal CellSpot with a $25 deposit, while pre-paid customers can purchase it for $99. If you are a T-Mobile user, will you be buying this accessory for your home?

Source: T-Mobile{.nofollow}

John Callaham
John Callaham
42 Comments
  • So how do I get it!
  • You need to contact (800) 937-8997. I just ordered mine.
  • I did too. Took over an hour
  • I contacted customer support earlier today and they didn't know what I was talking about and after I got transferred a couple times, they said I couldnt order it until the 20th. Just called again using that number and this time I got a hold of a very helpful employee who helped me with my order. Knew everything about the device and was apparently getting his own. Depends on who you talk to I guess..
  • It's still very new. Makes sense people are still dumb about it. I spoke to three people. They all knew what it was but were having a hard time putting the order through. Needed a tech to do it. Sales couldn't and the general representative couldn't either lol. W.e. It's on its way and $0.00 :)
  • Just got done ordering mine! No deposit required if ordered before 24 Sep, free UPS ground. Hope this helps my wife out in her 925!
  • Where does one do this? Over the phone or online?
  • Did it over the phone with customer service, then handed off to tech support. You have to be a simple choice subscriber.
  • How did you manage that?  Not like I need a new router, but if it is completely free with no deposit I'll jump on it.
  • Call customer service and ask them for one. You have to be a simple choice subscriber. Edit: For it to be free, you have to be a simple choice subscriber. It's still their equipment, so if you leave T-Mobile, they will ask for it back.
  • Just got the same. $6.99 for shipping. That was all...Well, and a $500 charge if I cancel my service and don't return the router.
  • Same here. Couldn't agree more
  • Please tell me what you product details say when you check the status mine says celfi which I don't want Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Not quite sure if I understand this. If you already have wifi, why do you need this?  T-Mobile is only 2G in my area. If you are using wifi, you don't need data.  Mind you, I do not use T-Mobile because there was Zero service until 2G came along a few months ago. Would this make T-Mobile usable at my house?  2G would outside, who knows what's inside.
  • You don't need it really. I mean, it's a nice router if you want to upgrade and they're offering this at a really good price. I might buy one for $99 while I'm still on T-Mobile.
  • The router has QoS to prioritize voice calls over other traffic. New T-Mobile banded phones have the Wi-Fi calling baked in to the OS/firmware. This allows for handoff from Wi-Fi calling to VoLTE. If you only have 2G in your area, this may be of no use to you. Source from the slickdeals thread on the device.
  • Our house was in a dead spot in an otherwise strong coverage area. We got a signal booster last year from them and it has made a huge difference!
  • You got an actual cell signal booster, which I imagine they will stop offering if you have new T-Mobile branded devices.
  • I actually just got one odered few minutes ago, The sales guys went through our family plan account checking which phone does not have wifi calling, only my wife's iPhone 5 did not have that feature. So, he said all I realy need is a booster and using UPS std shipping is free, device is free. But will cost me if I loose it or not return it when they ask or when I cancel with them ($200-$400 he said.) I am scheduled to get it next week Friday.
  • If you have a cellfi already you can't order online they have to remove the signal booster from your account first Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Haha! Now it all makes sense. This is a cost cutting measure shrouded in the marketing hype of a "new" feature.
  • That's cool, don't need any cell booster since I left T-Mobile. Cricket has twice the signal power that T-Mobile has.
  • "Why T-Mobile needs Wi-Fi calling: its network can’t match AT&T and Verizon" - Article title at ARS Technica yesterday.
  • There spectrum in general is really bad at penetration
    But the is one of the best consumer routers on the market even if you don't need it it's an account router for free till the 24th Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Why not link it Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • Ok.
    http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/09/why-t-mobile-needs...
  • Too true. If you live in a metro area, perhaps T-Mobile will do just fine for you, but if you travel outside the city, prepare to drop calls. I commute from Lansing to Detroit every day (about 75 miles) and there's a huge dead spot, as well as crappy reception in my house. However, my wife works from home, so she stayed on T-Mobile for the price and international features, so we just called up customer service to get one of these routers. Hopefully it fixes the issues at home.
  • You should really be asking why Att and Verizon don't offer WiFi calling. Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • Asking? I think he already answered that.
  • This is why I let t-bone: Sitting in my recliner and to make or continue with incoming call I needed to walk outside! Kept promising better coverage. Blah, blah, blah.
  • Cell calls aren't bad in my house but I wonder if this is a better network router than I currently have...
  • Biggest problem I have with this is that TMobile is forcing you to buy there TMobile Branded phones with this service to take advantage of the WiFi calling.  I'm not sure this actually a good deal for Windows Phone users since they drop support for Windows Phones devices pretty quickly meaning firmware updates could be an issue. You can't buy an unlocked (global variant) phone and get the WiFi calling.   
  • Nailed it. And it's a big reason for this WP user to seek greener pastures.
  • They are using the ASUS AC68U router for the cellspot here are the technical specs of the router.
    http://www.asus.com/Networking/RTAC68U/
  • Can someone tell me if this boosts LTE or Wi-Fi? Wi-Fi calling on my 925 hasn't worked at all since I upgraded to 8.1, so if this is merely a Wi-Fi calling device with QoS built in, then it won't help me at all. If it provides a nice strong LTE signal, then I'll be all over it.
  • Just did the order. I am having the same issues with my 925 after update. We need to wait till t mobile officially releases 8.1 and the firmware associated with them and Lumia. The Nokia update. Wifi calling is T-Mobile's problem to fix. Either way, I have lte all around me , and there is a deadspot that causes an issue so everyone benefits here.
  • So this is basically a WIFI router?
  • The device is basically an ASUS (RT-AC68U) Wireless-AC1900 Dual-Band Gigabit Router supposedly with 'T-Mobile firmware' to give WiFi calling priority over everthing else through the router. Info for the device is here: http://support.t-mobile.com/community/coverage/personal-cellspot/wi-fi-cellspot-router
  • so i'm using my att broadband to assist tmobile sucky service.  maybe i should just change my cell service to att.
  • Or noun could get the best WiFi router on the market Posted via the Windows Phone Central App for Android
  • They have them in store, but for some reason the system wouldn't let the rep add it to my account, claims the rep. Posted via Windows Phone Central App
  • They can't sell it till the 26th thats what the manager told me at the corporate store, you can only order online to ship until the 26th comes around.