It is now possible to translate conversations in real time using your phone, without a human translator in between. The Google Translate app on an Android phone or Apple AirPods Pro 3 connected to an iPhone can help anyone overcome language barriers.
Well, almost anyone. Not everyone has a phone that can support live translation, or has the time or bandwidth to install an app (and maybe commit to a subscription).
IT-Mobile wants to remove any barriers that prevent you from talking to someone on the phone. Introduced the upcoming Live Translation call feature, which begins testing in the spring, which puts language translation at the network level. So even if you own a basic dumb phone, you can talk to someone who speaks one of over 50 languages with the help of T-Mobile’s AI network agent.
Registration is now open for the live translation beta for subscribers of any T-Mobile postpaid plan, such as Essentials, Experience More, Experience Beyond and Better Value plans.
“We want to make the voice cool again,” said John Saw, T-Mobile’s president of technology and chief technology officer, pointing out that its customers make 6 billion international calls a year, and 40% of those people travel internationally. “Live Translation is a real breakthrough in innovation by introducing the latest AI models to our voice network.”
As happened during the beta period of what became T-Satellite service, T-Mobile has not decided which plans will include the live translation calling feature. It has not yet decided how much, if any, it will cost. Satellite is currently included in the Experience Beyond and Better Value plans and is available in other plans as a $10 add-on. It is also open to customers of other providers for $10 per month.
I haven’t tried T-Mobile’s live translation yet but I’m looking forward to testing it out soon.
How will live translation work
You must dial *87* to activate T-Mobile’s live translation call tool.
To turn on live translation during a call, a T-Mobile subscriber presses *87* (star-eight-seven star), which activates the AI agent. Only one person participating in the call needs to be a T-Mobile subscriber, and it will work when the customer is roaming.
IT-Mobile says there is no setup, no voice training and no need to specify which languages to translate. The AI agent detects which languages are being spoken in real time and speaks a translation when the person stops speaking.
The AI agent will also detect that you are calling from another country and select the translation language. If you call someone in Brazil, they may choose Portuguese, for example. If the person speaks a different language, such as Spanish instead of Brazilian Portuguese, the agent will change immediately.
Also, the spoken translation will not sound like a robot voice. “Our AI model can actually simulate your voice in another language and preserve pitch, emotion and rhythm,” Saw said. He says the performance is consistent with the low latency found on T-Mobile’s 5G Advanced network.
Once activated, the feature does not need to be disabled. If both speakers switch to the same language, the AI agent simply stops working as a mediator.
The true test will be the quality of the versions. “We’ve done a lot of AI-powered translation measurements,” Saw said, “and it’s on par with the accuracy of all established services.” He said the model complies with FCC 2027 captioning guidelines and meets all ADA accessibility standards.
When I asked Saw if conversations were being recorded, even during beta, he said that this type of maintenance is done using millions of internal test calls only. “We don’t listen to customer calls, either [the AI models] are not trained on customer data,” Saw said, noting that the service meets all FCC privacy guidelines.
Exactly which AI translation models are being used, or which partner companies are providing them, is something Saw declined to share. He confirmed that T-Mobile is working with several AI companies, but “we won’t name them because we love them all the same.”
Saw noted that the way T-Mobile’s network is designed as a platform has the advantage of being able to connect updated AI translation models, launch development overnight and make it available on hundreds of millions of phones.
Live translation is just T-Mobile’s first AI feature
All the major mobile providers are using AI to varying degrees. AT&T recently announced AI technology to optimize Internet traffic at the home router level, for example, and Verizon is deploying Google’s AI to improve its customer service experience. IT-Mobile itself uses AI to automatically redirect cell load between towers during emergencies.
Besides pointing to some future strategies, Saw named a few other jobs that AI agents could handle in the future, such as an AI receptionist or AI concierge. Centralizing AI technology in the network opens up those possibilities.
So why is the company choosing live translation as the first installation of AI, customer-facing network features?
“Live translation is not an easy solution,” Saw replied, “but it’s a real pain point to solve today.”
