Free Wi-Fi, at&t, death star, free wireless, hotspots, iphone, starbucks

AT&T Says Free Wi-Fi for iPhones Will Come... Someday

All AT&T's flip-flopping between offering free wireless at Starbucks and then taking it away—turns out it was some peon screwing up after all. An spokesperson for the company told the New York Times that the confusion was due to a "human error." But the day when iPhone users can definitively access the internet while sipping on frappuccinos will come, the PR flack assures, AT&T is just refusing to say when. Oh, come off it, AT&T. The cat's out of the bag already, you might as well roll out the service now. I'm sure there will be plenty of secrets you can accidentally release before deadline in the future. [New York Times]

9:45 AM on Sat May 10 2008
By Elaine Chow
2,575 views
16 comments

Comments

bms at 09:54 AM on 05/10/08
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I didnt know that John Kerry was running AT&T.
Ideapimp at 10:52 AM on 05/10/08
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ah. One of those, "an" spokespersons. Those are the worst.
Noobs-R-Us at 11:41 AM on 05/10/08
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Yes, the free wifi was supposed to be announced by Jobs at the Dev-con in June when he releases the 3G iPhone! Some at AT&T did really let the cat out of the bag too early. That person is now in Job's basement getting water boarded.
Noobs-R-Us at 11:42 AM on 05/10/08
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Some=someone
phoomp at 11:50 AM on 05/10/08
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Wasn't free WiFi at AT&T hotspots announced when AT&T took over Starbucks' hotspots? Or was that just speculation at the time?
klamerus at 11:54 AM on 05/10/08
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Of course it was human error. Idiotic, insensitive, money-grabbing, bully humans run AT&T.
davezatz at 11:56 AM on 05/10/08
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Human error? Guess we can't continue blaming Skynet and Arnie.
Glupidio VanHosen at 12:43 PM on 05/10/08
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I've been using the AT&T service in Starbucks for a couple days now in Austin, and it works great on the iPhone. In fact the login page looks like it was specically designed for it.

I'm just using my u-verse login for free access until they officially support the iPhone. I don't think it will be long now.
tamoko at 01:35 PM on 05/10/08
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I tried this out yesterday outside of Philly,didn't fly... Oh well AT&T, you've won this round.
Galley at 01:57 PM on 05/10/08
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AT&T broadband customers have been getting free Wi-Fi at AT&T hotspots since last year.
mferrari at 02:55 PM on 05/10/08
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It will come when they have a way to stop people on laptops taking advantage of it.
nojo at 03:42 PM on 05/10/08
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@mferrari: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3

Whoops!
SanskritiSiren at 11:55 PM on 05/10/08
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Actually, this is only a big deal for us losers who own 1st gen iPhones. When 3G rolls out, it won't matter anymore.
jamesuschrist at 01:04 AM on 05/11/08
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Gah! We wouldn't need this "free WiFi" if the iPhone was 3G...scratch that we wouldn't need this "free WiFi if AT&T 3G was available outside of the largest cities.

I live in Bumf*$k, Iowa. You can't get AT&T 3G anywhere here, not even Des Moines. Lucky for me I do most of my traveling to Kansas City, where 3G is everywhere. And oh my, that 1.5Mbps downlink nice on my laptop. It's usually faster than the random unsecured wireless connections I can find.
OMG! Ponies! at 07:33 AM on 05/11/08
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Oh come on, AT&T. Give us free wifi. Even though I have wifi at home, I need free wifi in Starbucks so I can blog.

Doesn't AT&T understand that writing - and especially blogging* - cannot be done in the privacy of one's home. It needs to be done where the "writer" can be seen. This is especially true for us people with MacBooks and MacBook Pros. We need to take up outlets, comfy chairs, and tables for four people.

*blogging - a hybridization of low-grade writing ability and gossip-mongering that passes itself as "journalism" under a thick coating of pretension. Blogging was invented in Brooklyn by a group of hipsters who wanted to convince the world that F train riders are cooler than people living in Gramercy Park.
michaelportent at 12:46 PM on 05/12/08
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@OMG! Ponies!: That is a golden comment OMG!, just golden.

Anyway, I was a tad disappointed with AT&T too. I bought an iPod Touch for the specific purpose of reaping the benefits of every cool web app for the iPhone without that pesky contract.

So I've taken to wandering around Seattle like some sort of WiFi parasite. Pillaging free bandwidth wherever it may be found. Apparently, I can just pass up Starbucks now knowing I won't get any sweet, juicy signal there. On to Top Pot Doughnuts!