AT&Tease, Where For Art Thou WiFi

July 21, 2008

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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AT&T is quickly becoming the company who cried “Free” one too many times. Back in May, AT&T posted a web page announcing free WiFi for iPhone users at the company’s WiFi spots nationwide, including Starbucks. Then the page was suddenly removed and announced as an error by AT&T. That is a pretty embarrassing mistake, but a mistake all the same and hardly newsworthy. Until it happened again.

From MattCastille.com - great image

Last week, AT&T once again posted a web page promising free WiFi with these words:

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 hotspot network with more than 17,000 hostspots, including Starbucks*

However, the announcement was yet another error. While someone in marketing may think that this is a brilliant move to drum up anticipation and interest, it actually borders on incompetence and threatens the credibility of a major company such as AT&T. It also begs the question, is anyone awake at the switch? Doesn’t anyone check what goes up on the web at AT&T? Can anyone just post a page repeatedly promising something and then retract it without consequence?

Clearly, AT&T has something in the works to offer Free WiFi, but after two embarrassing false launches, it is time for AT&T to put up or shut up. Or they may just find that no one believes them when the service finally launches for real.