AT&T is expanding its pilot project to create large outdoor Wi-Fi hotzones in areas with consistently high 3G traffic. In May, AT&T has launched a Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City’s Times Square to provide a mobile broadband offload option. Customer usage has been better than expected. Now, the company has created an AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in downtown Charlotte, N.C. AT&T plans to further expand the pilot project with the launch of a third AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in Chicago in the coming weeks.
“Our first AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in New York City has received praise from our customers, and we’re excited to introduce this Wi-Fi solution in Charlotte,” said Angie Wiskocil, senior vice president, AT&T Wi-Fi Services. “Wi-Fi plays a key role in our strategy to mobilize everything that’s important to our customers – including entertainment, news, social networks and business apps. With these pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones, we’re examining new ways to use a combination of our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to deliver the best possible mobile broadband experience.”
AT&T noted that in the second quarter 2010, it handled 68.1 million Wi-Fi connections on its network, compared to just 15 million in the same quarter last year. Many of the most popular AT&T smartphones support auto-authentication at AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots, making it automatic and convenient for customers to connect. Customers can log onto AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones and more than 20,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide without it counting toward their monthly smartphone data usage.http://
