T-Mobile: Your number works across all your connected devices with DIGITS

T-Mobile unveiled DIGITS and opened up a limited customer beta of this new technology that ends the century-old telecom limit of one number locked to one phone.

With DIGITS, your T-Mobile number works across virtually all your connected devices—phones, tablets, wearables and computers. And DIGITS lets customers put multiple T-Mobile numbers on the same device, so you can combine work, home and personal numbers on a single smartphone.

“Phones today are nothing like they were just a decade ago, but the phone number has basically stayed the same forever. It’s time to shake things up!” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile.

“DIGITS works just like your T-Mobile phone number, except it is way more powerful. DIGITS works across virtually all your devices, and those devices can have multiple numbers on them. And this is my favorite part: you can even use DIGITS on Verizon, AT&T and other smartphones!”

DIGITS prioritizes calls from your phone over other data so calls are more reliable with crystal clear HD voice quality and full mobility. 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.

“Simply put, DIGITS is breakthrough technology that won’t be replicated any time soon,” said Mike Sievert, Chief Operating Officer of T-Mobile. “This isn’t the first time you can add extra numbers to a device, but this IS the first time you can do it all – multiple numbers on one device and one number on multiple devices – and do it with carrier-grade quality. DIGITS is your real T-Mobile number with every bit of the reliability, call prioritization, services and mobility you expect.”

More than 30 million Americans carry multiple devices. 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 – a practice that costs US wireless customers an extra $10 BILLION every year. And, you’ll never have to compromise your security by giving out your personal number because you can use an extra set of DIGITS any time you don’t want to give out your primary phone number.

For businesses, DIGITS means they can finally move to a mobile-ONLY workforce. Businesses can give their employees DIGITS to use on their personal smartphones – even if those phones are on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. Businesses can save millions spent on ancient desk phones and give employees and customers a better experience with DIGITS.

You’ll be able to share DIGITS among employees, so your entire sales team can get both calls and texts to your company’s sales line – no more missed sales calls. And if an employee leaves, the business will be able to keep the employee’s DIGITS number along with any business contacts and relationships.

T-Mobile is already working with other device makers to integrate DIGITS natively into their devices. Until then, DIGITS is available through an app on Apple’s App Store and Google Play as well as via browsers on PCs or Mac computers.

To break free from the one-number-one-device limitation with many-to-many routing capability for calls, texts and data and to re-imagine traditional network authentication, T-Mobile’s engineers built an entirely new IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) service management layer and Identity Management solution. Instead of authenticating devices through SIM cards, DIGITS gives customers their own identity. When someone calls you, they reach you regardless of the device you have in your hand.

“Our team dug deep into the technology needed to free us from the one number one phone limit. And to do it right, we built a solution into the core of our network that breaks all the old telco rules,” said Neville Ray, Chief Technology Officer of T-Mobile. “To the carriers—and their telecom model—you’re just a SIM and a piece of hardware. With DIGITS, it’s all about you communicating the way you want. This opens up a new world of possibilities.”