Well ladies and gents, I scored a new phone, router, and free T-Mobile @ Home service for one year earlier today! (a $1500 value, not too shabby!!) Although I had to wait for 10 hours (started waiting in line at about 12 midnight), the weather was decent and the people weren’t too crazy.

When I arrived, I was the 30th person in line (give or take). I later learned that someone got there at 3 pm and was was in for a 12+ hour wait (It just wasn’t that serious for me). There were still spots available on up fo 7 am in the morning, which didn’t really make me happy because I could have been in the bed SLEEP until then, but of course if I did that then EVERYONE would have showed up early and got my spot, so c’est la vie on that one. The promo said to get there by 8 am, but they didn’t open the store until 9 am. While we were waiting for the opening festivities, the local radio station was the first media people on the scene, followed by a local TV station shortly thereafter. They went through the line and gave us donuts and coffee, and also did some interviews. Normally it would have been cool, but I know I was looking dapper/silly in my bathrobe, so it’s not a moment I want to see rebroadcast over and over again.

MNH officially has no comment. But click for more pics.

When the doors finally opened, they let people in 5 at a time to activate the service, so it took an additional hour just to get to the door (even though I was ~30 feet away!). All in all, it was definitely worth it, and the plan is simply AMAZING!! I apologize to all of you out there because I didn’t READ the full details of the promo (even though I did supply links to it), and didn’t correctly advertise all of the benefits. This is what I received:

• Samsung T409 HotSpot-enabled phone
• T-Mobile/Linksys HotSpot @Home WiFi router
• 1 year free T-Mobile HotSpot @Home service, which includes:
• Unlimited calls to five (5) of your myFaves contacts;
• 2000 nationwide WHENEVER minutes;
• Unlimited T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile domestic calling
• Unlimited weekend and nights minutes
• 1500 text messages sent
• 1000 text messages received
• Free access to T-Zones
• Free domestic calls when calling from your home (while connected to WiFi), a T-Mobile HotSpot, or any other free WiFi location (friends house, etc)

Click here for pictures of the event

Click here to see the Flash presentation