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The Wall Street Journal is reporting that T-Mobile has addressed some technical problems with HotSpot @Home offering, currently undergoing trials in Seattle. This means the dual-mode service, which allows users to roam between a cellular and Wi-Fi connection, is now scheduled to (finally) go nationwide; likely this summer and perhaps as soon as the middle of June if all goes well.

The carrier has a page on its HotSpot @Home Web site where you can sign up to be notified when the service launches in your area.

Since T-Mobile HotSpot @Home is based on Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology, it can seamlessly switch calls between a Wi-Fi and cellular connection, depending on which is available and most cost effective at a particular moment. So a user can be on a cellular-call, using the minutes from their mobile plan, but when they walk into their home or in range of a T-Mobile hotspot, the call is automatically moved over to Wi-Fi without interruption, saving those and possibly improving reception.

T-Mobile HotSpot @Home costs $20 a month on top of your regular cell phone plan. It delivers unlimited voice over Wi-Fi calls from T-Mobile's more than 8,000 hotspots and your home through a Wi-Fi access point connected to your broadband Internet service. You pay $5 more per month for each additional family member.

T-Mobile offers a router for $50 that is free after a mail-in rebate. The service will work with any router, however, so it is not necessary buy T-Mobile's if you already own one. However, the operator says its router provides better service and longer battery life.

Two dual-mode handsets, the Nokia 6136 and Samsung T709 (both $50 with a two-year contract and a voice plan of $39.99 per month or more) operate with T-Mobile HotSpot @Home.

Unlike most voice over IP (VoIP) services, T-Mobile HotSpot @Home has the advantage of supporting a single phone number for both cellular and Wi-Fi phone calls. It also promises to deliver better phone service to areas where cell phones do not work well or at all.

T-Mobile HotSpot @Home should also prove very attractive to those who prefer to do without a landline phone.

Although the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service appears to be targeted at consumers, The Wall Street Journal quotes Wi-Fi Alliance managing director Frank Hanzlik saying he believes more opportunities may rest in the enterprise, as people spend a lot of their time during the day at work where cellular signals are often faint. It’s a place dual-mode, which promises to improve indoor reception, can flourish.

The nation's number four carrier is still far behind operator competitors Cingular, Verizon, and Sprint when comes to the delivery of third-generation cellular data services to the U.S market. Last year it paid $4.2 billion for radio spectrum to roll out UMTS/HSDPA technology on the 1700 and 2100 MHz bands, staring during the middle of this year and going through 2008.

By leveraging its heavy hotspot investment—by far the largest of any mobile operator—with dual-mode, T-Mobile, which has about 25 million subscribers, may have a chance to make up for its current lack of 3G.

The Samsung SGH-T709 slider, in addition to integrating Wi-Fi, is a tri-band (850/1800/1900) GSM/GPRS/EDGE handset that includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, speech recognition, video recorder, MP3 player, speakerphone, and a slider design. There's no expansion slot, however. It measures 3.7 x 1.7 x 0.9 inches, weighs 3.3 ounces, and has about 69 MB of usable memory.

The 6136 clamshell includes a 1.3 megapixel camera, a microSD memory card slot, and a stereo FM radio with Visual Radio support. Its screen handles 262,000 colors. The phone specs out to get about 5 hours of talk as a cell phone and 5.5 hours in Wi-Fi mode. Standby in Wi-Fi is only 82 hours, while it’s 280 hours for cellular.