Alltel/US Cellular have been offering this for a while as "My Circle". Available with all phones but only some plans, but it's also 10 numbers instead of Tmo's 5.

http://www.alltelcircle.com

I'd much prefer an addon to my current TMo service and device - why do we need new hardware for a service that is 100% software-centric?

i don't see any mention of hardware...it seems like all software to me?

they are probably adding the displays to the phone itself, so that the free "5" are extremely obvious to limit complaints for when wonderful customers forget who their free 5 are, and bitch about charges on their bill.

This is nice for anyone who goes over checking voice mail or communicating with someone on another carrier. By now though I'm skilled enough at managing my own minutes. We have a 2,000 minute 5 phone familly plan and with m2m have not issues with coming close to exceeding the time allowed.

What is super sweet about TMO is the promo unlimited text messaging for my family plan that I grabbed for $9.99 which covers all lines. I've yet to see any other carrier offer such a good deal. They also offer a good deal on their wifi network that is in most Starbucks -- if you're a tmo subscriber you can access it for $19/mo which I found is about the cheapest for a fairly widespread fast network (and certainly runs rings around most of the bloated pricing for wireless data that Verizon is trying to push.

Tethering my phone to WIFI has limited appeal as well unless the connection is automatic and seamless.

One has to wonder what would happen if there were no contracts for cellular phones and everything was SIM chip based. Would I still be getting dinged 10% more per line for taxes/services/fees?

-Wayne Schulz
Schulz Consulting
http://www.s-consult.com

and so the mystery is solved.

You're definitely going to need a new phone to use this. My TMO account manager explained the service to me a couple of weeks ago when going over some other items. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying much attention and can't provide any info in addition to what's already here.

We talked about CZJ's departure too, which brought tears to our eyes.

Think of this as a marketing tactic for T-Mobile. While they are giving away minutes to their my-faves subscribers -- don't you think the people that are being called by those subscribers might want to become T-Mobile subscribers.

I believe that the true goal of myfaves is to get non T-Mobile faves to come over to T-mobile.

Most people who are going to spending lots of time talking are already going to be using M2M. So it stands to reason that anyone on a myfaves list is merely a target to become a payng T-Mobile subscriber.

If that weren't the plan and this was truly a way to save subscribers money then they'd let you add 800 numbers to your myfaves..