Qwest partners with AT&T to offer broadband WiFi
May 8, 2009
Qwest customers who subscribe to Qwest High-Speed Internet will soon be able to go online for free at any of 17,000 AT&T WiFi hotspots throughout the United States, including McDonald's and Starbucks locations.
Qwest reached a deal with AT&T after a study it commissioned found that nearly half of all respondents valued WiFi because it provided them with the freedom and flexibility to stay connected beyond the office or home, the company said.
Dan Yost, Qwest's vice president for mass markets, said that nearly half of all respondents in the company's survey get "antsy" in about an hour if they can't check email, social networking sites or instant messaging.
It is the first WiFi partnership for AT&T, which acquired a hotspot operator in November for $275 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Journal reported last week that Verizon is also planning a free WiFi offer forbroadband customers.
AT&T says that its users connected to its WiFi hotspots 10.5 million times in the first quarter of 2009, three times the number of users who connected to hotspots in the first quarter of 2008, Networkworld.com reported.
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