Hands on with Vodafone at Home | Telecom snipes back
Vodafone has just released a gizmo that re-routes your home phone calls over its cellular network, quite literally pulling the plug on your Telecom landline.
"Vodafone at home" is a $99 box, the size of a beer mat but a couple-three centimetres deep, with two standard jacks to plug in any old home phone. An aerial on the box then beams your home phone calls over Vodafone's cellular network rather than your home's Telecom line.
Thanks to a regulatory change that's been in force since April, you can keep your current phone number if you do choose to switch (to Vodafone at home or, a couple of technology leaps away, a VoIP service run by an ISP. Whichever service provider you switch to can call Telecom on your behalf to arrange things).
Toll-free calls
The monthly service, also called Vodafone at home, cost the same as a standard Telecom home account ($40), but Vodafone includes unlimited calls nationwide. That is, bye bye toll charges. Calls to Vodafone mobiles in New Zealand will cost 39 cents per minute and calls to other mobiles are 55 cents per minute. International calls are based on Vodafone's existing fixed-line offers.
Plug and call
I set up an eval unit this morning (pictured), bracing myself for the niggles that come with any first-generation product. However, set-up was plug and play, and I was able to make my first call within two minutes. Call quality was fine. The only difference was that - as if I was using a cellphone - I had to dial 09 before making a local Auckland call (for the Vodafone at home box has a SIM card inside). I'm going to call my brother in London when the time's a bit more amenable, so check in on tomorrow's update to see how international call quality turned out.
Like a Woosh modem, the Vodafone at home box (officially called an XSJack T2, according to its slim manual) has lights on its exterior. Three green bars - which I got, in central Auckland - means signal strength is optimum. If you have difficulty getting a strong signal (and my colleague Juha Saarinen reports such strife) then there's a - again Woosh-style - extender aerial with a long cable that ends in a sucker you can attach to a window. The T2 does need an AC outlet, too.
Telecom snipes back
Telecom spokeswoman Rebecca Earl was quick to strike back via our sister site Stuff, where she said
the value of home lines went beyond calling and was how broadband and Sky interactive services were accessed and alarms monitored. Mobile was not considered by the telecommunications industry as the preferred platform for the diverse services customers demand."This move has been well signalled for some time, and we think relying on mobile technology as a household's only link with the world will suit only a niche group of customers."
When I put Earl's comments to Vodafone spokesman Paul Brislen, he replied: "This is only the first generation device on offer. Future versions will include capability for data, alarm monitoring and so on. The at home device today is really only the tip of the iceberg and there's plenty more to come."
Brislen also expects Telecom's response to go beyond Earl's war of words: "National toll calls are worth $150m a year to Telecom. The fixed line business brings them in $1bn. They're going to have to respond somehow."
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Comments
Looks like Telecom are putting a spanner in the works, Telecom users, land line and cell have mysteriously been locked out of being able to connect through to the "At home" box users. You have to laugh at their anti competitive behaviour... Can they dig a bigger hole?
Posted by: Klark | November 23, 2007 11:28 AM
Got my box last night, easy and quick setup and plugged into my main base set answerphone that transmits to 5 wireless slave phones and presto! They all work and ring perfectly. Got this system due to frustration via Telecoms endless costs when building a new house. Had to pay for the cable to be brought down the street, pay for cable to the house, pay to have it connected to the house and apart from the "flick the switch" fee they wanted another $500 for a non negotiable "goodwill" contribution to their network... Internet? Pffft! My exchange is so old that it was too painful using an old dail up when Telecom informed me they had no plans to upgrade the exchange unless the neighbours all chipped together to pay for it.
Posted by: Klark | November 22, 2007 12:02 PM
I have been using a Telecom land-line relayed from the nearest town via a VOIP link over wireless broadband for a few years. Telecom wanted $24,000 to put a wire down the 5km of road to my rural property. Now I have Vodafone At Home, I will save around $50 per month. I was paying $20 per month for the VOIP relay plus Telecom's line rental plus toll calls. I will save the cost of the Vodafone At Home box in a couple months. Not having a working FAX, dial-up Modem or Sky Remote is no problem since they never worked anyway! Set-up was dead simple and, with line-of-sight to a nearby cell-phone tower, reception is excellent. The manual said the phone-to-box cable should be only 2-3m. I have two buildings 160 metres apart and all phones work just fine!
Posted by: Richard Williams | November 21, 2007 4:40 PM
I got mine this morning - took two minutes to set up. Quility is clear, seems fine. It only took Telecom 2 weeks to tell me they were having issues with my new home installation, and *I* had to call them to find out why it hadn't been done on the 5 occassions I was told it was done.
This was cheaper and I KNOW it is more reliable than the fixed lines in the areas!!!
This is a godsend for me. I no longer have ANY bills from Telecom... Something I've been trying to do for years!
Posted by: Allan Williams | November 20, 2007 1:42 PM
Sounds like a great option for the likes of home businesses that have 2 phone lines- one could be vodafone at home, to do all the toll calls on etc, and the home phone line can carry the broadband and fax- can anyone see any catches to this? Thanks
Posted by: Donald Taylor | November 20, 2007 9:45 AM
This looks fine for replacing a single phone but what about if you have 4 phones do you need a box for each at $100 a pop? Also what about the ADSL broadband will we not still need a phone line for this.
[If you've got four phones for the one home phone number, it's no problem, as the two jacks on the back of the box can each take a double jack, as Vodafone's Paul Brislen. If you've got four separate phone numbers - and remember this is a product called "at home" --then you'll need to buy four different boxes. - CK]
Posted by: Graham Garlick | November 18, 2007 12:01 AM
Underwhelmed.
While I applaud the ability to make national tolls at no extra charge, I will still need copper to get broadband. Having tried Vodafone's 3G, I was unimpressed.So much promised, so little delivered.
what also bemuses me is that they would put the product out on the marketplace undercooked, with only phone and no other services...
I will wait...
Posted by: yellowdog | November 17, 2007 10:42 AM
I have been using mobile technology as my sole means of telephone and internet access for a couple of years now, so it sounds like Telecom really need to get with the program.
Posted by: Al Foster | November 17, 2007 7:35 AM