Bridging their cellphone network and WiFi HotSpot services, T-Mobile's latest forary is looking to cut the cord on traditional home telcos and boost VoIP.

With a recent Gartner survey finding that ten percent of people use their cellphone as their only phone (increasing to 30 percent in the lucrative 18 - 34 age range), it's no surprise to find T-Mobile leveraging their WiFi HotSpots with their latest HotSpot @Home service.  Designed to further stick the knife in traditional landline telcos, it uses special WiFi-enabled handsets that not only access the T-Mobile cellular network to carry calls but, when either a public T-Mobile HotSpot or the user's own home WiFi network is available, switches to cheaper VoIP.

Two phones will be available from today's launch: the Samsung t409 and Nokia 6086, both costing $49.99 with a two-year contract.  T-Mobile have also partnered with D-Link and Linksys for the special HotSpot @Home routers, currently free thanks to a mail-in rebate, which distribute the home broadband connection both to existing computers and to the T-Mobile phones.  With up to 8,500 public HotSpots managed by T-Mobile in the US there's a fair chance you could take advantage of the unlimited local and long-distance calls on offer.

What distinguishes the HotSpot @Home service is the network handover; calls originated while in a HotSpot will, once you've stepped out of range, seemlessly switch to T-Mobile GSM cellular, and - even more impressive - vice-versa.  That means signal issues and patchy reception when at home should no longer be a problem: as long as you're in WiFi range your domestic calls are not only free but carried over the broadband network.

Currently plans run to $9.99 a month (on top of existing line rental) for a single HotSpot @Home line, or $19.99 for up to five handsets, enough for the whole family.  If you'd like the chance to get one free, however, T-Mobile are running a promotion at eleven locations across the country; be one of the first one-hundred queueing up outside the participating store at 8am and you could take home a free phone, router and year's worth of HotSpot @Home service.  Oh, one thing - you have to be wearing a bathrobe!  The carrier is obviously stressing the idea that you won't have to get dressed and leave home to make unlimited calls, though I'd suggest you should wear normal clothes underneath else you might get arrested!

T-Mobile have been kind enough to give us one of the HotSpot @Home prize packs - containing a HotSpot phone, router and free @Home service for a year - to give away to one lucky reader. Keep reading SlashPhone to find out how you can take part!