AT&T Expands Free Nationwide Wi-Fi for DSL Customers

AT&T upped the ante Wednesday by announcing that AT&T DSL customers with 1.5 Mpps service or higher will now be able to access AT&T's network of 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots - free. Customers were already receiving a discount so this is only a savings of $60 for AT&T customers, but a savings of $240 vs non-AT&T customers.

However, this isn't really a new offer, as higher-speed packages (3.0 Mbps+) already had free access - but it's a nice PR move. They need something after the HBO on Broadband announcement that's only for cable customers, right?

Of course, there are a lot of people who can't get or don't want higher than 1.5 Mbps service, so this lets them into the program, but Basic DSL customers (768 Kbps) are still left out in the cold.

9,000 of these hotspots are at McDonald's locations, while the other 1,000 are managed by Wayport. Frequently these are at airports and some Barnes & Noble stores.

It's pretty easy, assuming your eligible, to use the service. You can find an updated list of hotspot locations at the AT&T Wi-Fi website. AT&T users simply have to find the network with the SSID attwifi, and log in using their primary DSL or U-Verse account username and password.

You can read the full press release here.