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Back in May, AT&T launched a massive free (at least to AT&T customers) Wi-Fi zone in New York City's Times Square, in order to help take some of the heat off of their historically-strained 3G network. In July AT&T announced they were expanding this "hotzone" trial into Charlotte, and in August they announced the same for Chicago. At both launches AT&T stated that they were busily collecting data to see whether they should expand this project to cities nationwide. Now the <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101228/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_at_t_wi_fi">Associated Press</a> gets the pre-press release scoop from AT&T that the company is going to expand their Times Square hotzone in New York City, and will soon launch a similar effort in San Francisco.
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Chief Technology Officer John Donovan said those pilots have been successful, so the company is expanding coverage around Times Square and setting up zones around nearby Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Donovan said the company plans further Wi-Fi expansions, including in sports stadiums. Wi-Fi is a cost-effective complement to wireless broadband over AT&T's regular, 3G cellular network, Donovan said, but it doesn't replace investment in that technology. The motivation for the zones is to improve the subscriber experience where a lot of people gather, he said.
The company also of course runs a more than 20,000 hotspot strong Wi-Fi network in locations like McDonalds, Barnes and Noble, and Starbucks.
