Last iPhone post of the day.
It dawned on me, while I was reading another blog, that 1. AT&T owns and/or operates a rather large 10,000 hotspot WiFi network in the US (and possibly provides access to more through roaming partnerships); and 2. they aren’t bundling access into it for iPhone users.
This is incredibly dumb. AT&T had a killer opportunity to market their first “Wireless Double Play” device and access package and they blew it. AT&T already allows their DSL customers to access the AT&T WiFi network for an additional charge of $1.99 every month.
Someone at AT&T must have championed the “ancillary revenue” angle over delivering a practical solution and enabling customer convenience. Or, it could just be another example of one half of a large company not wanting to play nice with the other half. Or something.
The best WiFi deal for world travelers is the worldwide Wi-Fi service from Boingo Wireless for a flat rate subscription cost of US$39/mo. It includes unlimited roaming at over 100,000 hotspots around the world.