AT&T Inc. announced Tuesday that it is launching free wireless fidelity capability for LaptopConnect customers. LaptopConnect utilizes the company’s wireless network that enables customers to keep connected to e-mail, the Internet and business applications.
Those customers, who pay $60 per or more a month with a two-year commitment for up to 5 GB of combined upstream and downstream data each month, will receive free of charge access to about 17,000 domestic hotspots, comprising mostly McDonald’s stores (9,500) and Starbucks outlets (7,000). A few airports run by AT&T are also included, as well as Barnes & Noble stores.
The wireless market is gearing up as providers try to out-do one another. Last week, an AT&T executive said at an investor conference that the company is upgrading its HSDPA network to provide even faster network speeds to its data users. Today users who connect to AT&T’s 3G network can expect to get download speeds between 400Kbps to 700Kbps. And once the software upgrade is complete using a newer version of the technology, those speeds could eventually be boosted to between 4Mbps and 6.6Mbps.
To outpace its wireless competitors, the carrier has long been supplying faster 3G cellular services while also strengthening the number of Wi-Fi hot spots it offers on the theory that Wi-Fi can provide faster connection speeds inside of buildings or in remote locations. Both are shared networks, meaning that the number of users will affect the speed of the connection, although both types of systems are designed for multiple users at any given time.
While supplying both Wi-Fi and 3G might appear contradictory to some, AT&T officials see offering both as a way to present a more complete package. “The combination of the nation’s largest wireless and Wi-Fi networks is unbeatable,” said Michael Woodward, vice president of business mobility product for AT&T wireless, in a statement.
AT&T LaptopConnect is a service that depends upon the company’s wireless network to keep customers connected to e-mail, the Internet and business applications almost anywhere they can make a phone call. Through it, customers install a LaptopConnect card in their laptop computers.
Customers that sign up for LaptopConnect will automatically receive a pop-up message alerting them to Wi-Fi availability when they are in range of an AT&T hot spot.
AT&T’s expansion of its free Wi-Fi service is now available only for its laptop data card users. AT&T’s Wi-Fi connection policies have also been important to Apple Inc. iPhone users. It is however, not yet available for smartphones, such as the iPhone. But the company has said that it will be coming later in the year.
On the wireless side of the business, Wi-Fi offers AT&T a great way to offload bandwidth-intensive traffic from its expensive cellular network. And it provides faster, indoor coverage for some customers.
Free Wi-Fi access at AT&T hot spots has been available to some AT&T broadband customers with wired connections, and the carrier said it plans to expand free Wi-Fi access to additional wireless customers.
“San Antonio-based AT&T Inc. provides local and long-distance telephone and Internet service in Missouri and Illinois.”