First of all, I’m back from a great vacation in Miami. Now that I’m back, I’ve noticed that I left 90 degree weather down South to enjoy 95 degree weather here in my hometown of NYC :)… and for those of you that are searching for the phrase “Mark Rosner IDT,” I know who you are.

So back to the regular beat…

T-Mobile just announced that it is offering dual Wi-Fi cellular phone service. You can now ditch your regular landlines for good. The NYTimes is correct to point out that this is a game changing event (not so much for cellular companies, as it is for traditional landline telcos such as Verizon and AT&T). All calls that originate from a Wi-Fi hotspot are free. Given that most of us have those hotspots in our house and work, the vast majority of cell calls will be free.

While the phone choices are limited, I certainly expect more phone variety in the future and expect other cellular operators to begin offering the same and/or similar services.

Via BusinessWeek

Even if they’re so inclined, other carriers may have trouble following T-Mobile’s lead. Rivals are six to eight months away from being able to offer an @Home lookalike, says Shiv Bakhshi, director in charge of mobility research at consultancy IDC (IDC). After all, it took T-Mobile three years to develop the service, which necessitated a network upgrade and tweaks to the Wi-Fi router to improve battery life on the phones.

So, you ask… “what are the benefits?”

There are two singular (no pun intended AT&T) and very direct benefits: You can reduce your monthly cellular minute allowance and ditch your landline for good. The interesting thing is that the demographic that T-Mobile is targeting is the college to 26 year old crowd. Isn’t that the same target market as the iPhone?

Nice!