Although they've trimmed their deployment plan in half, Verizon says providing free Wi-Fi to their DSL subscribers in Manhattan has been a hit. The company reports they've seen a 2% reduction in churn, and are "surprised" at how popular the hotspots have become - so will they deploy more?. Originally planning to deploy over 1,000 hotspots throughout Manhattan, Verizon eventually scaled that plan down to around 430 (some of which are viewable via a list on the Verizon website).

Many of those hotspots are wired into the mounts of decommissioned and existing pay-phones, and according to this Telephony On-line report, 70% of their Wi-Fi traffic stems from roughly 50% of these booth mounted hotspots. The Manhattan deployments were supposed to be a trial - potentially leading to broader Wi-Fi deployments - though Verizon has yet to indicate a time-frame for free Wi-Fi in other regions. Those plans may be put on hold to instead nudge users toward their third generation EvDO wireless network.