AT&T Pulls Free WiFi Offer Hours After Making It, Again

Just hours after AT&T advertised free nationwide access to AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots for iPhone users today it canceled the offer saying it made a mistake. This is not the first time AT&T has offered free Wi-Fi access to its customers only to quickly renege on the offer days or hours later.

Earlier today Today@PCWorld blogged AT&T announced, via its Web site, it would provide iPhone owners access to free Wi-Fi across its entire hotspot network nationwide. With 17,000 locations in airports, hotels, convention centers, universities and select Starbucks locations, iPhone users will be able to take advantage of their device's Wi-Fi capability.

AT&T stated earlier this morning:
"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 hot-spot network with more than 17,000 hot spots, 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."

Within hours it removed the Web page that stated this and an AT&T spokesperson publicly admitted: "The Web page was posted in error and is being removed."

In May, the company first announced it would give iPhone owners free access to Wi-Fi across its network only to yank that decision a few days later. Shortly after that the free Wi-Fi plan showed up on the company's website again, only to disappear again.

Comments

If I had to guess, I'd say that there's a struggle going on within the company between the forward-thinkers (free WiFi now, brand loyalty and lots of money later) and the backward-thinkers (any money now).

If that's the case, the backward-thinkers clearly outrank the forward-thinkers.

rixware

July 18, 2008

12:22 PM PT

"If that's the case, the backward-thinkers clearly outrank the forward-thinkers."

What did you expect??

citizenw

July 18, 2008

1:34 PM PT