Many people feel that T-Mobile has “dropped the ball” in regards to building their network to be bigger and better than the competition. They’ve been slow to release phones, slow to high speed data, lost their hotspots coverage at Starbucks to AT&T with no replacement in sight, and their advertising since the loss of Catherine-Zeta Jones has seemed, to some, to produce an adverse effect in attracting customers.

But have they really dropped the ball?

Over the past year, T-Mobile has worked to bring innovation to the wireless industry in the form of Hotspot@Home, the first VoIP offering by any cellular carrier – an inexpensive add-on to any plan – that offers unlimited minutes while connected to a WiFi network using “special” (UMA-enabled) phones. While the new service was mildly advertised and brought in a lot of customers, it mainly came across to consumers as a highly confusing campaign, one that would be more like a bait-and-switch tactic than an actual functional feature. Phones that could support this service, those with UMA built-in, were slim and news on any future phones was nearly non-existant. Advertising for the new add-on was scrapped, while any news of it was kept “on the down low” – left for only current T-Mobile users to advertise to friends and family as “their little known secret”.

In the meantime, T-mobile worked behind the scenes to get 3G high speed data to the masses, all the while keeping minute plans costs low and customer service helpfulness high. Now, T-Mobile is poised to launch a revamped Hotspot@Home, re-dubbed TalkForever II, with an aim at home phone service. 10 Phones that are able to take advantage of the soon-to-be-relaunched service are ripe to be launched soon, and T-Mobiles 3G network is rumored to be coming up this summer -emphasis on the rumor part ;)

With a well known positive customer service reputation, low plan price points, up-and-coming low priced 3G, and unlimited-minutes-for-rock-bottom-prices H@H/TalkForever, T-Mobile has never been in a better position to add significant numbers to their subscriber base. It all adds up to rock solid competition in the US Cellular industry, and a message to everyone that T-Mobile has quite a few more tricks up it’s sleeve as it continues to grow.

It all comes down to one thing… that proverbial ball that some may say has been dropped? It’s not going anywhere.