T-Mobile US Introduces "Digits" Unified Communication Features

Users of Samsung devices (Note 5 and Galaxy S6 and later models) on the T-Mobile US network can use a “one device,multiple numbers feature” called Digits. Digits also allows a T-Mobile US phone number to work on connected devices, including phones, tablets, wearables and computers.

Among the noteworthy implications: more features of “unified communications” now are available as standard features on some devices; IP voice once again is a feature, not a for-fee service and voice quality mechanisms are used.

“Digits prioritizes calls from your phone over other data so calls are more reliable with crystal clear HD voice quality and full mobility,” T-Mobile US says. “That’s because DIGITS is your real wireless number with real wireless calling--not a best-efforts data connection like you get with over-the-top (OTT) Internet calling services.”

More than 30 million Americans carry multiple devices, T-Mobile US says. “So if you juggle identical phones with work and personal numbers, you can stop paying for two devices, two plans and two times the network access fees,” T-Mobile US says.

If T-Mobile US is correct, that means as much as $10 billion in mobile service fees could now be at risk.

In a business customer context, Digits allows those accounts to assign Digits numbers to consumer phones on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint networks, for example, without having to assign a physical device (fixed or mobile).

That potentially displaces some amount of business spending on fixed network telephony.

IP telephony tends to reorganize markets, as do most forms of internet-driven competition. In the case of unified communications, it keeps getting harder to precisely define the boundaries of the market.