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AT&T's Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Access for iPhones Finally Announced?

AT&T's Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Access for iPhones Finally Announced?



iPhoneAlley notes that AT&T has once again posted information on their website indicating that all iPhone customers have free access to their more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots access across the U.S., including Starbucks locations:
AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation's largest Wi-Fi hotspot network with more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks*. Now users can relax and access music, e-mail and web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location.
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AT&T provides an online tool to find a Wi-Fi spot near you.

We had first reported on this topic back in April when AT&T had turned the feature on at hotspot locations across the U.S. This was quickly disabled just a few days later. Another week after that, AT&T advertised the new feature on their iPhone website, and again quickly removed it. When the service was active, AT&T simply required you to enter your current iPhone phone number as authentication.

There was some speculation that the delay was due to the fact that they had not yet completed their Wi-Fi deployment at Starbucks. AT&T had won the Starbucks contract from T-Mobile in February and is already offering free Wi-Fi access for their DSL and business customers.



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Apple should offer free access to any of their hot-spot deals to any international iPhone user, that would be a great deal for business men who travel a lot, wouldn't it? And I don't expect there would be that many of them that the providers would loose out a whole lot.

With just O2 and AT&T they could claim access to 14,500 WiFi hot spots across two continents, plus however many there are in the other countries!
 
dukebound85 said:
how does that work? can regular laptops use it too if its just wifi? or ipod touches? how does att make sure its iphones getting the wifi?
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im assuming that you'll possibly have to download some sort of app from the app store. since iphones/ipod touches will be the only platforms to run this sort of thing
 
I don't get it. I've been using a free AT&T wi-fi hotspot in Emeryville, California for awhile now. If gives me several options to login including my DSL account or my phone number. Maybe it was a test program or something. Anywho, it's slower than a Mac syncing to MobileMe...
 
if you have to type in your number isn't that just an iphone thing then? and not ipod touch
 
donga said:
if you have to type in your number isn't that just an iphone thing then? and not ipod touch
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Yes, and that's the way it should be. There is no reason why AT&T would give you free Wi-Fi for your iPod touch.

iPod touch ≠ iPhone

That's why you have to pay for your updates, muahaha
 
stockcerts said:
I'm not sure I understand why this matters to IPhone users as we don't need wifi to have connectivity.
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Yeah, but Wi-Fi is usually VERY fast and if some people don't have good data coverage at their local Starbucks or McDonald's then this is perfect for them.
 
stockcerts said:
I'm not sure I understand why this matters to IPhone users as we don't need wifi to have connectivity.
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Not every location will have 3G connectivity, and even where 3G is available it is not as fast as WiFi. WiFi speeds are more consistent and higher.
 
Now you're gonna see even more people in Starbucks with apple products, with the number of Starbucks in NY, you don't even need 3g. ;) But this is great news and will even be better if you can login your laptop with just your celnumber.
 
Even ATT doesn't know how it works

I called ATT to ask how their free wi-fi system works. Is the network secure, or totally open? Do I enter a special iPhone password? Does it automatically know I'm on an iPhone and lets me in with no pw?

LOL! They told me to call Apple!
 
Speaking of Starbucks, a week before the iPhone 3G went on sale, the Starbucks Music store portion of the iTunes Music Store finally started showing up on my 1st gen iPhone (though the "Now Playing" part wasn't working yet.)

Now that I have an iPhone 3G when I go into Starbucks and open up the iTunes Music Store, I get a blank screen instead. And about every 20 seconds or so it'll flash for a half second with images of the Music Store, but it never fully loads it nor stabilizes for some reason. Don't know if that's a Starbucks' router issue, an iPhone 3G issue, or ?

Can anyone else see if they are having this issue? Specifically iPhone 3G users that open the iTunes Music Store within a Starbucks in a city that has the Starbucks Music Store service (San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago)

But the free WiFi is working at least (has been for weeks for me at my local Starbucks.)
 
Wifi is great because it's not only faster than 3G, it appears to use the least amount of battery (less than Edge, even). Ok, MacRumors, what's with the crappy textarea element? 50 rows and about 3 columns? Time to fix it, methinks. :p
 
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