MuniWireless

Nearly every online tech publication, including this one, has written about the AT&T announcement offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone users at Starbucks. Unfortunately in at least two Starbucks locations — Bush Street at Grant in San Francisco and California Avenue in Palo Alto — it’s not working. Indeed AT&T’s splash page sends users to T-Mobile!

Here’s a note I received from an iPhone user today:

I went to the Starbucks on California Ave. in Palo Alto. My iPhone shows two SSIDs:…

Boingo has acquired Opti-Fi Networks, a company that manages Wi-Fi networks in 25 airports in North America. Boingo now has 55 airports in its roaming network which already includes John F. Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark airports in the NY area, as well as Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway, and London’s Heathrow.

Last week AT&T announced its acquisition of Wayport, which operates thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots in McDonalds and hotels. By adding thousands of hotspots to its network AT&T can provide free Wi-Fi…

AT&T is paying $275 million in cash for Wayport, a privately held company that manages Wi-Fi hotspots for thousands of locations worldwide including McDonalds, the Four Seasons Hotel chain, and Marriott Vacation Club. AT&T plans to offer its customers free Wi-Fi access at Wayport hotspots. Recently, AT&T decided to offer free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, a US coffee chain that used to be with T-Mobile.

AT&T’s decision to give away Wi-Fi access is very smart: heavy data users such as people who…

AT&T is giving away access to all of its Wi-Fi hotspots in Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, and other locations to iPhone users. I can understand why they’re doing this: they want iPhone owners to use Wi-Fi instead of the 3G network which has suffered a number of outages in recent months in various parts of the US. According to Engadget, there is a hack for people who don’t own iPhones but want to get access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi networks for…

It seems the only person outraged enough to complain about the rising cost of text messaging and possible collusion (aka price fixing) among the carriers is Senator Herb Kohl, head of the US Senate antitrust subcommittee who sent a letter to four mobile phone operators (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile) which reads in part:

“Your four companies are the nation’s leading wireless telephone companies, collectively serving more than 90% of the nation’s wireless subscribers. Since 2005, the cost for a consumer…