AT&T Officially Lists Wi-Fi Hotspot Access with iPhone Plans

[chickenninja]

I beg to differ. This was not a feature of the iPhone plan I signed up for. Now it is. The price has not changed. Thus, it is free. I suppose you could consider that they are charging for it and have just dropped the price on everything else, but that's a rather negative outlook, no?

thats a good point

 

[seedster2]

awesome that we get this free!!!

Nothing is free. It is clear that AT&T was negotiating the broadband with Starbucks long ago. This is probably built into your service contract.

AT&T is there to make money, they're not in the business of giving away services for free.

 

[Hooka]

I personaly don't enjoy starbucks coffee. In fact if I go to starbucks more then once a year that would be an over statement. Allthough I do watch football next to a starbucks so I will be able to pick up wifi and this making my Sundays all that much better.

I do think this is AT&T trying to limit the amount of bandwidh with the 3g network. Because we all know how much we love to surf the web on our iPhones. We also know that AT&T is complaining about how much trafic is on the edge network right now.

 

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

This is really nice. I can't wait to start using it.

 

[jholzner]

I'm sorry AT&T, I can get much more done for less money. I was a former subscriber and happy with the AT&T phone service in the past, however in the US, this price for data and phone service costs too much for individuals.

ipod touch + public wifi (which is everywhere) + VPN = getting work done with security....all without a contract. (and I travel frequently for business nationwide)

BTW- when is apple going to have a removable battery in their iphone? I'd love to purchase one when they do. The ipod touch makes a great PDA and communication device (when its jailbroken).

Well of course there's no contract with the iPod touch since you aren't getting any phone service or a phone.

There will never be a removable battery.

 

[everdown]

Back on topic, one of the things, besides the money, that is holding me back from an iPhone, is the 200 text messages a month-I easily go through at least 500, if not 1000, with my friends/family each month, because our schedules are so hectic, we can sometimes only communicate that way. Is their a way to upgrade the number of text messages a month on the iPhone plan? The wi-fi access would help in terms of emailing people, and doing work that way, but I still need the texting.

Yes, call AT&T. I think for an extra $5 a month you can get unlimited messages to other AT&T users.


On another note not related to the guy above, I can't believe the number of people who say "just find a hot spot. They're everywhere." I agree that there are many places, restaurants, cafes, schools, parks with wifi, but seriously why limit yourself to those places. 3G will be incredibly helpful at airports (most require payment), walking to work, on the subway, at the nicer restaurants that don't provide wifi, getting maps in the car, sitting on the beach, exploring areas outside of the city... Don't any of you who only use wifi ever do those things?

Wifi is great for people with nowhere to go, but the minute you start moving 3G is everything.

 

[kimdokkyu]

I'm at Starbucks

I'm at Starbucks and I am trying to log on ... but it does not work. I entered my phone# and password and selected "att-wifi" ... any thoughts.

 

[Zadillo]

Well, take this from a college student who wishes he had an iPhone, many teenagers are spoiled brats, and their mommies and daddies buy them everything, and they don't work, even on college campuses, which is totally surprising, because i have to pay for anything above basic living expense (i.e. spending money, computer, phone, insurance, credit card, video games, etc.) unless they are presents, which many video games are!

Back on topic, one of the things, besides the money, that is holding me back from an iPhone, is the 200 text messages a month-I easily go through at least 500, if not 1000, with my friends/family each month, because our schedules are so hectic, we can sometimes only communicate that way. Is their a way to upgrade the number of text messages a month on the iPhone plan? The wi-fi access would help in terms of emailing people, and doing work that way, but I still need the texting.

You can upgrade to 1500 text messages per month for an additional $10 a month, or unlimited text messages per month for an additional $20 a month.

-Zadillo

 

[rockstarjoe]

I hope this isn't too far off topic, but I have a question. I have a pretty good AT&T plan from 4 years ago that I receive a 15% discount on. I get more minutes for less money than the lowest price iPhone plan. Now, I know when you sign up for the iPhone plan you must give up your corporate discount, but I plan on simply adding the iPhone Data plan to my account rather than signing up for a new calling plan. Will I still lose my discount? Thanks for anyone who can enlighten me.

 

[wizard]

Great Minds think alike!

This is GREAT news. Would be even better if we find out that you don't need to enter any username / password / mobile phone number.

The entry of the phone number is a bit of a pain in the ass, I do hope that AT&T has a long term solution for this problem. Part of the issue here is that I don't always know when I'm around a AT&T WiFI hot spot. The other is the desire to have a many services / features as possible exploit WiFI when ever possible.

i.e. you walk by starbucks, your iphone picks it up without you realizing, you quickly check your email and it does it via wifi seamlessly

Yeah you got the idea but I'm also thinking about apps that don't exist yet. For example a stock portfolio management program. There are other ideas that float out to me from time to time also. The point is seamless access to freely available WiFi makes for a lot of interesting possibilities.

For AT&T this does offer them the opportunity to drastically lower demand on their cell network if developers can easily switch communications modes depending on what is available.

Dave

 

[wizard]

If you cannot afford a pittance like $60 a month you SHOULD NOT HAVE AN IPHONE. I mean come on we are talking about a freaking $400 phone here. If $60 a month blows your budget to hell, its most probably not a wise decision for you to have one (a cell phone) in the first place.

Do we really need to hear crap like this? I suspect that most people on this forum do see $60 as a lot of money, I know I do. Even then though the issue isn't the $60 spent in one month but rather the more than $700 spent a year. A big difference.

As to the initial cost of the iPhone, frankly that is nothing as it can be scheduled for times when one is flush with money. The real cost of an iPhone is in the ongoing contract. It is one thing to piss away $400 one day, it is another thing to commit to thousands over a long period of time.

Dave

 

[spaceballl]

it is another thing to commit to thousands over a long period of time.

Dave

I think we assume that people reading this forum have cellphones... So that's just an expense that most of assume we'll have, regardless of which carrier / phone we have.

 

[jeffgarden]

How to connect

how do you sign in ? What username do you use or where do you get one ?

Thanks

 

[Maxington]

Not free given that I pay $39.99 for the same plan right now that gives me 450 minutes. Hopefully they'll grandfather the price.

I would imagine the $59.99 is ($39.99 + $20.00 iPhone data plan)

 

[Shin3r]

Do we really need to hear crap like this? I suspect that most people on this forum do see $60 as a lot of money, I know I do. Even then though the issue isn't the $60 spent in one month but rather the more than $700 spent a year. A big difference.

As to the initial cost of the iPhone, frankly that is nothing as it can be scheduled for times when one is flush with money. The real cost of an iPhone is in the ongoing contract. It is one thing to piss away $400 one day, it is another thing to commit to thousands over a long period of time.

Dave

No it's not a big difference, it's exactly the same thing. Hello. Get a clue. The only way it becomes a problem is if you have to pay for a year in one lump sum and can't afford to do that. Otherwise the math is exactly the same thing. There is also an ongoing contract with any phone service unless you buy the pay as you go phones. your logic makes no sense.

 

[borgBulldog]

Looks like it was a mistake!

All references to the WiFi seem to have been removed from the AT&T Wierless pages

 

[ntrigue]

deleted

 

[ntrigue]

If you cannot afford a pittance like $60 a month you SHOULD NOT HAVE AN IPHONE. I mean come on we are talking about a freaking $400 phone here. If $60 a month blows your budget to hell, its most probably not a wise decision for you to have one (a cell phone) in the first place.

+1000

$60 can't even top-off my tank and I have to fill-up 5x a month!

 

[Flowbee]

how do you sign in ? What username do you use or where do you get one ?

When the service was (accidentally) live last week, a screen would pop when you launched Safari (on the iPhone) that asked for your phone number. Once you entered it, you were good to go. No other login or pw required.

That screen no longer shows up. Just the regular ATT username/pw screen. iPhone users are out of luck at the moment.

 

[bretm]

I don't know where you do your business, but I haven't had the pleasure of having public wifi "everywhere." I live in Los Angeles area and free wifi is pretty scarce all over southern California. And I don't know which iPod Touch you have, but I don't have VPN on mine.

However, with those two, life would be awesome!

I don't recall the iPod touch having a PHONE! either. Talk about your bad comparisons. Its a phone plan of your choice, plus a $20 data plan. If you think the $20 is too much for unlimited data and 200 SMS messgs, then just say that. Buy it is a very competitive price fwiw. The touch doesn't do either. Why mention it?

 

[bretm]

I would imagine the $59.99 is ($39.99 + $20.00 iPhone data plan)

Correct. The iPhone plans are the same as any other phone plans.the cost of the phone plan should have no bearing in the iPhone purchase decision, unless you don't like the idea of using a data plan, similar to any other smartphone. But then, why buy an iPhone if you don't plan on using data? AT&T will give you a free phone if you just wanna call people.

 

[Omni Geno]

I don't recall the iPod touch having a PHONE! either. Talk about your bad comparisons. Its a phone plan of your choice, plus a $20 data plan. If you think the $20 is too much for unlimited data and 200 SMS messgs, then just say that. Buy it is a very competitive price fwiw. The touch doesn't do either. Why mention it?

Wait a sec.. are you referring to my post or the original post that I was replying to, which said:

ipod touch + public wifi (which is everywhere) + VPN = getting work done with security....all without a contract. (and I travel frequently for business nationwide)

This person's post said that with a Touch, Wifi everywhere, and VPN, you don't need the iPhone and its contract. And I disagreed with it completely, since there is no wifi everywhere, nor is there VPN on the Touch. I never mentioned iPhone price plans.

 

[davidmaxwaterma]

boring

Starbucks have had free wifi for several years in my country - for anything with wifi, not just iphone.

 

[isalex]

i dont see it, where did it go?

 

[Lershac]

I suspect that most people on this forum do see $60 as a lot of money, I know I do.

Perhaps you should reconsider your decision to purchase it then. Its either a luxury you can afford, and its not a big deal... or its a necessity you cannot do without, and then you eat ramen to keep it....

OR ITS SOMETHING YOU CANNOT AFFORD.

Even then though the issue isn't the $60 spent in one month but rather the more than $700 spent a year. A big difference.

No, not at all its the exact same thing. if you figure in the time value of money... its less!

As to the initial cost of the iPhone, frankly that is nothing as it can be scheduled for times when one is flush with money. The real cost of an iPhone is in the ongoing contract. It is one thing to piss away $400 one day, it is another thing to commit to thousands over a long period of time.

Dave

Agreed, if you cannot afford it, dont do it! Its unfortunate but true that not everyone can have everything.

On teh other hand I am really upset that Ferrari charges as much as they do for their cars...c'mon its only a v-10!