In February of 2005 I wrote a blog entry about how Verizon had actually missed potential market plays when the city of Philadelphia daned to begin their build-out of municipal Wi-Fi broadband wireless Internet connectivity. I still maintain that muni Wi-Fi represents a greater opportunity than it does a threat for commercial fixed-line broadband service providers. Now in July of 2007 I read in the Wall Street Journal that one of the Local Exchange Carriers finally begins to understand and act on the potential opportunity that a mix of fixed broadband and wireless access can represent:
AT&T Inc. announced Monday that subscribers to its higher-speed broadband services will have free access to its Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.
Here’s an article with more detail from CNet.
Kudos to AT&T for finding a service differentiator to cable-based broadband in their service territory. Broadband competitors in AT&T-served markets will find it difficult to counter this. AT&T DSL customers who have iPhones should be particularly happy because now they can use their Wi-Fi functionality of their iPhones in locations where AT&T offers Wi-Fi hotspot service.
Technorati Tags: Competitive Intelligence, Telecom.
