AT&T Launches Major Wi-Fi Hotspot in New York City's Times Square

AT&T today announced that it is rolling out a large new Wi-Fi hotspot in New York City's busy Times Square, offering users of the company's congested cellular networks a new option for routing traffic in the area.

AT&T today announced the launch of an AT&T Wi-Fi "hotzone" in New York City's bustling Times Square, providing coverage for many AT&T customers visiting and residing in New York who use Wi-Fi enabled smartphones, laptops, netbooks and other devices. The new Wi-Fi coverage zone is a pilot deployment to explore the use of Wi-Fi to provide an additional mobile broadband option in areas with consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use.

The press release notes that coverage is generally available in the north central portion of Times Square, near 7th Avenue between West 45th and West 47th Streets.

Access to the Wi-Fi hotspot is available free of charge to nearly 32 million AT&T customers with qualifying phone, laptop, or high-speed Internet plans.

With this pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone, we're examining new ways to combine our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to help ensure that AT&T customers in Times Square always have a fast mobile broadband connection to do what matters most to them. It's another example of how AT&T is exploring the ideal blend of technologies to maximize the mobile experience for our customers in New York City.

AT&T has been making major investments in its network infrastructure, particularly in Manhattan and San Francisco where high demand has made it difficult for the carrier to keep up. Recent studies have shown that AT&T customers have been seeing generally improved data performance as a result of the company's efforts, but that voice performance continues to trail that of competing carriers.