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 AT&T Wi-Fi Expands Overseas By Eric Griffith
March 7, 2007
Today, AT&T Wi-Fi -- the service that sprang from the ashes of SBC FreedomLink after the AT&T/SBC merger -- announced that its global footprint of hotspots is now at a total of 48,000 in 79 countries, putting it well within reach of an effective fight with iPass. The two companies both concentrate on providing remote access services via Wi-Fi, 3G, even dial-up, to employees of businesses; AT&T continues to offer AT&T Remote Access service to consumers. "The goal for our customers, what they want, is for the end users to have a single piece of software that they can use anywhere," says Rick Gretsch, executive director of IP product management for AT&T. They announced that today as well: the AT&T Global Network Client software, which activates the end user's VPN connection and provides easy access to all the connection methods AT&T supports -- just like the iPassConnect client. "We wrote our client software with scripts so users don't need to see the splash screen [at the hotspot]," says Gretsch. "If it's one of our provider partners, they're simply logged on. If it's a hotspot we don't have a relationship with, we launch the browser and the splash screen. In all cases, it's a single sign-in experience." AT&T's big push this week is to get the word out to customers who demanded an increase in the network footprint overseas, specifically in Europe and the Asia Pacific area (Japan and China in particular). "We get direct feedback from our business customers," says Gretsch. "They're not shy." AT&T continues to have a mix of hotspots it actually operates (11,568 in the U.S), along with those it aggregates from partners (3,411 in the U.S., 33,339 overseas). iPass doesn't operate its own hotspots; Boingo only does so now that it's purchased Concourse Communications, a major hotspot provider in airports. AT&T is also extremely proud of its airport hotspots; it has service at 81 airport in the states, including in the "top 25 busiest," according to the company. New this week, it added Milwaukee, William P Hobby and Bush International in Texas, Memphis International, Louisville International, and Oakland International. Reciprocal roaming agreements continue just as they did in the SBC days. In fact, among the 11,568 hotspots AT&T says it operates, it counts the locations that are technically run by Wayport in thousands of McDonald's Restaurants. "We've got an interesting relationship with Wayport," says Gretsch. As a result of the AT&T/BellSouth merger, those McDonald's locations also broadcast an AT&T Wi-Fi-branded SSID to users. "It's kind of 'AT&T powered by Wayport,'" Gretsch says. "We're not just a roamer on there." AT&T also operates the networks for Barnes & Noble. There are also deals inked with major players like T-Mobile -- AT&T roams on many of their airport lounge hotspots. They don't as yet roam on any non-airport T-Mobile locations, like those in Starbucks. T-Mobile subscribers can likewise use the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspots in airports.
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