Start spreading the news. AT&T has kicked off a new WiFi initiative directed at the heart of New York City.
According to the wireless carrier, new “zones of connectivity” are on tap for Times Square, Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral, each of which is an habitual hub of tourist activity.
Although Times Square has already delivered free AT&T WiFi for better than six months, AT&T is expanding the hot spot via the new initiative. According to a press release from AT&T, the larger Times Square hotzone will now cover the north central part of Times Square along 7th Avenue, east along 46th Street, and along Broadway.
In addition to New York City’s Times Square, in early 2010, AT&T deployed Wi-Fi hotzones in downtown Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago’s Wrigleyville as part of its “pilot project to explore using Wi-Fi to supplement mobile broadband in urban areas with consistently high mobile broadband use.”
Only a few months into the pilot, AT&T customers made more than 350,000 connections at the three hotzones.
AT&T will give live with the new and expanded Wi-Fi hotzones in the “coming days.” The same goes for AT&T’s forthcoming Wi-Fi hotzone in San Francisco at the popular Embarcadero Center.
“Our initial AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones have received great customer response and supported high data traffic,” said John Donovan, AT&T chief technology officer. “The pilot demonstrated the clear benefits of having fast and readily-available Wi-Fi options for our customers and our network, and so we have decided to deploy hotzones in more locations.”
