AT&T To Offer Free Wi-Fi Hotspot Access To Windows Mobile Users
If you have a WinMo smartphone, you're in luck. (Wow, I never thought I'd be typing that.) Starting September 14th, AT&T will open up its approximately 20,000 Wi-Fi hotspots to Windows Mobile customers with "qualifying plans." According to AT&T, that should mean most WinMo customers as "most [already] have a qualifying data plan."
On the 14th, the three Samsung phones AT&T supports will start automatically logging on, with other handsets being added in the future.
One commenter at WMExperts notes that although this looks like a great freebie for customers, the reality is that it's probably a smart way for AT&T to offload as much network traffic to Wi-Fi as possible to give their overtaxed 3G network some breathing room. Regardless of the strategy behind it, it's good news for Windows Mobile users.
"AT&T opening up free WiFi for Windows Mobile" [WMExperts via jkOnTheRun]
(Photo: Ed Yourdon)
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If you have a WinMo smartphone, you're in luck.
No.
Want more 3G bandwidth? Go to Sprint or Verizon. If you have ATT DSL at home, you still get free hotspot usage.
This is nice - but if you don't have their service the local Dennys has free Wi-Fi!
I read that as "WiNo smartphone" and I was like "Sweet, I wonder if it will tell me the nearest places to buy Thunderbird and the best bus shelters to take a nap in."
I have a WinMo smart phone, unfortunately, I have the grandfathered $20 Media bundle with 1500 txt, 250 SMS, and unlimited data.
I think i'll stick to my Bundle.
But nice move ATT to go along with the forced PDA data plans.
@G.O.B.: Come on!: yeah after rooting the device and installing cooked roms from xda dev. Sure.
Have the fixed the alarm in Windows Mobile yet?
Why only Windows Mobile?
@FigNinja: You change a registry key, plug the phoen into the computer via USB cable, and away it goes.
If you want to get fancy you can turn your WinMo phone into a WiFi access point and let your computer connect to that, but while that's much fancier it's harder to set up (without paying for an app) and consumes more power.
Um, what good is this if AT&T is going to force people to buy a data plan anyway?
Free? AT&T does not equal free. You will pay for it as soon as enough people are hooked.
@aswearengen: That was only for new activations. Anyone who activated their phone before the deadline or whatever is fine and they don't necessarily have to have a dataplan.
@dohtem: The alarm problem is a very easy fix. All you do is remove the bad link in the notification queue. Which can be done with a simple download.
This is no deal. As a Blackberry user, I am free of the crash-prone Windows OS. On top of that, AT&T is pure evil. Good luck, suckers!
DOWn, baby, DOWn!
Slightly off topic, but could someone PLEASE start carrying some decent Android phones?? I *literally* rebooted by WinMo phone 8 times today b/c it couldn't handle jumping different WiFi networks. I can't keep this thing help together with spit and tape much longer. And now I hear Sprint is going to be the carrier for the HTC Hero CDMA version. Yay.
I'm literally ready to catch a last minute deal to London so I can buy a decent phone on Orange or Voda and bring it back. I'll pay the int'l roaming.
so, this won't work if you have a tmobile but use a ATT Fuze?
If you have a WinMo smartphone, you're in luck. (Wow, I never thought I'd be typing that.)
And what, exactly does that mean? I love my HTC Tilt.
That being said, yeah, I'm kinda surprised we're getting love too, considering we're kinda the red headed step child to the iphone's prodigal son.
I don't get the point of this. The only option I see on ATT's website under my account for data plans is 'unlimited' (5 GB). So, how does a 'free' hotspot benefit me?
@oldtaku: icscontrol makes it reasonably easy (ok, not as easy as the paid app) but the power draw overwhelmed my tilt. Even plugging in doesn't work unless you take measures to cool the phone.
Its quite easy on a jailbroken iPhone, but the power problem remains. I have heard ice packs are helpful.
@WickedKoala: The data you use on WiFi doesn't count against your 5GB limit? What if the 3G coverage in that store sucks?
@oldtaku: Here you go. Step-by-step guide and no payment necessary. I haven't field-tested the wireless AP part of it, mainly because wifi is ridiculously battery-intensive so I'd rather tether if I'm going to be stationary and using it for any length of time.
@dohtem: There ARE no cooked roms for my edition of my phone (Bell Omnia i910), and I still have far greater control over it than I would with an iPhone. And in a worst-case scenario, if I royally screw it up, I can restore from the dumps I took before I started messing with it.
When Corporate doesn't need to approve your every action, you tend to do more interesting work.
Unless it's somehow different on AT&T, tweaking WinMo for tethering is ludicrously easy and that would definitely give them a good reason to give you WiFi.