KEY POINTS:
As the Herald reported this morning, Vodafone has launched its At home service, which allows you to replace your home phone line with one based on its mobile network and makes as many local and national calls as you like each month for $40.
The service has
been in the pipeline for some time but apparently had to be put on hold until Vodafone undertook the major overhaul of its billing system midyear, without which Vodafone was unable to bill for numerous services.
I've given my views on At home in this Herald piece, that is, it's a significant development for the telecoms industry but only really becomes useful when you can buy broadband without being lumped with the access line fee as well.
That's called naked DSL and is available - sort of. Telecom will currently only enable 50 naked DSL connections a week, which is a pitiful number.
I'm interested in hearing what you think of At home. Now, the security of being able to make all the national calls you want for $40 has to be very appealing. I pay more than that now just to get an active Telecom line into my house. But is the mobile technology up to it?
You need a little $99 box that connects your regular phone to the mobile network. You port your phone number over to Vodafone so there's no need to change anything in that regard. It should work fine as long as you have good coverage in your home.
I haven't heard what's available in terms of messaging and voicemail services - it will probably be based on the same messaging platform Vodafone uses for its mobile customers. I'll be trialling the service shortly, so will report back.
Vodafone is also reducing the cost of its mobile broadband service to make it more attractive to go completely mobile for internet access as well.
As much as I like the idea of being able to do everything from a mobile data card and my laptop, the one gigabyte allowance is way too low for me and I need the greater data access speeds of fixed-line DSL. So I'm stuck with Telecom broadband at this stage, and by default, the Telecom landline. Would you be comfortable going completely mobile?
The next step for Vodafone is the dual-purpose mobile handset which acts as a home phone when in range of your home router, but becomes a mobile handset when you're away from home.
"Watch this space", says Vodafone on the dual-mode handset. I'm looking forward to that. I currently use my mobile for 70 per cent of calls and would be happy ditching the old home phone altogether.
The local tech blogosphere:
Aardvark's take on Vodafone At home