AT&T's Sloppy Free iPhone Wi-Fi Non-Launch Continues... By the time it actually launches, nobody is going to care In May, AT&T briefly gave all iPhone users free Wi-Fi for a short period. The free Wi-Fi party ended quickly after the company realized that by simply switching the browser user agent to mobile Safari, anyone could get free access. Shortly thereafter, references to the free Wi-Fi again popped up briefly on the AT&T website, only to disappear with the company offering no comment. Now a user submits this link to our news queue showing that references to free AT&T Wi-Fi for smartphones has once again popped up on the AT&T website. Says big blue: 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. AT&T has yet to issue a press release announcing the perk, and I've yet to get a response from my contact at AT&T. Update: it looks like the Wi-Fi isn't actually live, the web page was again posted in error, and this is just an extension of the ongoing and fairly absurd non-launch.
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  elwoodbluesElwood BluesPremium
join:2006-08-30
HarperLand | Why wouldn't WIFI be free? If a coffee shop or resturant is offering wi fi, why does AT&T need to get involved? | |
|  |  Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: Why wouldn't WIFI be free? said by elwoodblues:If a coffee shop or resturant is offering wi fi, why does AT&T need to get involved? Because AT&T provides the service and it costs money to provide the service. Starbucks probably gets a discount from AT&T and is not covering the full cost of providing WiFi to their customers.
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| | |  McLovinChicka chicka yeahPremium
join:2005-06-12
Fairbanks, AK
 ·GCI.net
| Re: Why wouldn't WIFI be free? said by Romney2012:said by elwoodblues:If a coffee shop or resturant is offering wi fi, why does AT&T need to get involved? Because AT&T provides the service and it costs money to provide the service. Starbucks probably gets a discount from AT&T and is not covering the full cost of providing WiFi to their customers. AT&T offers WiFi at no cost to Starbucks. AT&T makes profit, Starbucks gets 20% of the cut. At least thats how it used to be at B&N up here... Starbucks/AT&T took their spot down after B&N put up their own AP for free... | |
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| | Meh.... Why not make the iPhone that could tether instead? Since the jailbroken phones could do it, I assume that there are no technical hurdles preventing this from happening, and that it's an administrative decision at this point. Tethering would probably be more useful for iPhone users... | |
| |  djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
kudos:1 | Re: Meh.... I'm sure AT&T doesn't want people tethering on their $20/$30 data plans. | |
| | |  Skye
@cuyahogacounty.us | Re: Meh.... They don't. A Tether plan costs $60 per month - that's more than just getting an air card. | |
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| | | said by bigskank:Why not make the iPhone that could tether instead? Since the jailbroken phones could do it, I assume that there are no technical hurdles preventing this from happening, and that it's an administrative decision at this point. Tethering would probably be more useful for iPhone users... wait wait, WHAT?! The jailbroken iphones can tether? I've had a jailbroken iphone since 1.0.2 firmware and haven't see that @ all. Could you provide more info on this? (hiiiighly doubting you can) | |
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| | how about other wi-fi enabled phones I have the AT&T Cingular 8125 with WIFI built-in, why the hell couldn't I use this damn network for free?
Also if you go to a coffee shop with wifi and the iphone that is not part of AT&T then you could certainly use free or paid WIFI, AT&T and the Iphone is not going to stop you. | |
| | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast
| Re: how about other wi-fi enabled phones The thing here is AT&T runs a lot of hot spots beside the ones in Starbucks. Now, if your smartphone has WiFi, you can access them at no additional charge, just like you could if you're an AT&T customer on one of their higher-tier DSL plans. It's a bit of a win-win for you and AT&T: when you're within range of a hotspot, you get faster, lower-latency internet (usually a T1 runs into each hotspot, or so it seems), and you're not using up their cellular network capacity.
Why AT&T doesn't just do a login page and give all smartphone users a login for their WiFi service I'm not sure, but I'm *supposing* they're going that way this time... | |
| | | | | Re: how about other wi-fi enabled phones This free service is AT&Ts way of saying that iPhone users use too much of AT&Ts data network and they want to unload that data onto traditional landlines.
BTW iansltx, I have been to Fredericksburg, nice little town! | |
| | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 | Re: how about other wi-fi enabled phones Thanks, though if you came here with a 3G iPhone you'd be disappointed...nothing but EDGE for AT&T for miles, thought that should change in a few quarters. Nuthin' but EvDO  | |
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| | patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | said by iansltx: It's a bit of a win-win for you and AT&T: when you're within range of a hotspot, you get faster, lower-latency internet (usually a T1 runs into each hotspot, or so it seems), and you're not using up their cellular network capacity. Smart move, those AT&T hotspots rarely have anyone on them. In my experiance, I've never had my speeds less or more than ~1490kbit/s. So offloading cell traffic to an alternative underutilized network is a life saver. The problem with the shitty T1s when your downloading alot of multimedia, 1.5mbit/s take for f'ing ever compared to 6mbit/s DSL or most cable modems. | |
| | | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Verizon Online DSL
·Comcast
| Re: how about other wi-fi enabled phones But hey, 1.5 Mbit/s is better than, oh, 500-1200 kb/s on HSPA. Plus latency is about 1/3 to 1/2 that of HSPA. Great alternative to cellular and particularly good on the upload...UVerse max's out at 1.5 and only recently have cable providers started topping out at 2 Mbps...
And if you need better download speed...you go home to your DSL connection A T1 is generally good enough to stream, game, videoconference or what-have-you so long as most of the bandwidth is free, wouldn't ya think? | |
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| | Another Mistake Cnet (News.com) reports that it is another mistake by
AT&T. | |
| | Romney2012Defeat Obama 2012-Chg we can believe inPremium
join:2002-03-03
USA
kudos:4 | Re: Another Mistake said by wahoospa:Cnet (News.com) reports that it is another mistake by AT&T. Yes. Here is the link:
»news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-999417···hhTest=1
Wes Warnock, an AT&T spokesman, told CNET News that the notice was published in error.
"We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone," he said in an e-mail. "The Web page was posted in error and is being removed."
The same thing happened in May when AT&T first launched free Wi-Fi access to its Laptop Connect customers, who subscribe to the company's 3G data service for laptops. Then, like now, a notice had been published briefly on AT&T's Web site indicating free Wi-Fi access for iPhone users. It was promptly removed.
I asked Warnock why AT&T had inadvertently published this information not once, but twice, and he had no comment.
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|
 ronnie
join:2001-02-17
34. N 84.7 W
·Comcast
| free wifi AT&T started thinking of a way to milk more money out of users...especially the iPHone users.."Why give away wifi when those suckers will pay."
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A good argument is spoiled when someone comes along that knows what they are talking about. | |
|  intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | in future news ATT revokes free iphone wifi upon the release of Skype for iPhone. | |
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