Rant: AT&T iPhone Wi-Fi free as in money, but not as in time

Hoop jumpage. Totally hot.

I finally got the SMS alert on my iPhone telling me that I now have access to the Wi-Fi hot spots at Starbucks, for free. Cool. But the images I had of just sauntering in to a Starbucks, selecting the local Wi-Fi network and jumping on the Internet were busted when I read these ridiculous instructions for getting access:

• Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone.
• Select "attwifi" from the list of available networks.
• Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap 'continue.'
• You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hot spot. You will not be charged for the text message.
• The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hot spot location.
• Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hot spot.

To get on Wi-Fi, I need to tell you my phone number and then authorize over SMS? That's just goofy. I get that the method that I think should work to authorize an iPhone on the network--a check of the phone's MAC address by the AT&T Wi-Fi authorization system--might be more hackable than this closed-loop authorization system that checks to see if you're an AT&T iPhone subscriber in good standing via your phone number. But so what? It's not like the value of the network connection that someone would be appropriating if they hacked this system is that high to begin with.

Adding this "hoop jumpage" (as our writer Stephen Shankland calls it) just punishes the rest of us who only want to do a quick check of a Web site or map, thank you very much. It appears that for anything less than a long Web browsing session, we'd be better off just living with the cellular data coming into our phones.

See also: Meraki is offering free Wi-Fi to San Francisco. Why?

[WillSimpson62]

Uhh, it's not that bad. It basically instantly connects to the network, type in your phone number, click the link that pops up. If you think ten seconds is too high of a price to pay for WiFi, you can rant, but it doesn't really make sense... =)

They probably thought the phone-number method was the most simple, but had to verify it somehow. I could just type in my buddy's iPhone number and be done with it, so the SMS was the most simple method of verification.

[mjbarak]

Jeez, calm down. Do you need to find something to complain about? It's free wi-fi.

[Raymond Lui]

It's free Wi-Fi, but don't make it sound like the users owe AT&T a favor for having this.

This Free Wi-Fi Access would reduce the load of AT&T's 3G network,
diverting the network traffic to Wi-Fi hotspots actually reduce the need to upgrade their cellular network to support the increasing demand.

It's good for AT&T themselves also and they should make it easy enough that people prefer to switch to their Wi-Fi hotspot when available, as iPhone 3G's users wouldn't mind just use their 5GB data plan that you've paid for already.

[Perry_Clease]

Seriously Rafe, count your blessings, as Will Simpson wrote above it is not that much of a chore.

[P_Zed]

Wonder if it's the same for ATT DSL customers. I've never bothered to find out because A) I get in to Starbucks and out again immediately; who has time to sit there? and B) I have a nifty EVDO data card which means I never worry about wifi.

Get one of those things and it's really a game changer. Used to be, it was a thrill finding out where you could get wifi. You might even plan your day around a coffee shop visit here, open WAP there, whatever. But you could only go from place to place.

Now, I have EVDO everywhere. Airports, coffee shops, my office desk, my car in the middle of nowhere looking up a googlemap, a park, any darn place. It kicks wifi to the curb and just obsoletes it. And I never spend any time fighting with stupid wifi logon problems and passwords. Yeah, it's $60 a month but that's what, six sessions paid for on somebody else's wifi?

The only thing EVDO doesn't give me is wifi speed but I expect Wimax will solve that.

[ibeetle]

Who pee'd in your oatmeal this morning Rafe? There is absolutely nothing to complain about with this service or procedure in logging in.

[teradyl]

as an iphone user, I know exactly how annoying this is going to be. yes, it's free wi-fi...but when i want to get something on my phone it's usually something that i want really quickly check up on or something. maybe a facebook check, a weather update.

if i have to go to a webpage, type in my phone number, and then wait for a text message before i can finally click a link that only verifies me to continue, i'd probably just put my phone back in my pocket or switch to 3g. especially if what i'm trying to do is an app that doesn't use safari....the seconds are piling up here, and yes those seconds matter

[Galaxy5]

I have to agree that this is the most back-assward way of letting customers use a "free" service I've ever seen.

Look up one of the four unique codes (serial #, IMEI, Wireless MAC, SIM) on my phone and check it against the inventory feeds you must certainly have! Make it easy if you're really interested in giving me a "freebee".

Why does ATT put all the onus on the consumer? Because they don't actually want you to use the free wifi service.

[Perry_Clease]

"Wonder if it's the same for ATT DSL customers. "

As an AT&T DSL subscriber I can answer that question.

1. Enter your user name

2. Pull down a menu and choose pacbell.net, att.com, or whatever it is for your account

3. Enter your password

4. Click in the accept the terms of service box

5. Press return

Is it as easy as the free WiFi at hotels, auto repair shops, airport terminals, Panera Bakery, or the local yogurt shop? No, but it isn't a Herculean chore either. Seriously this tiny yogurt shop up the street from me offers free WiFi, nice place to sit at the sidewalk tables and surf the web on a warm summer evening.

[karpenterskids]

While it may not be a HUGE problem, it's my opinion that only the first three steps should be required.

After that, it simply becomes somewhat of a hassle.

Oh well..."free" always has its price, I suppose.

[Marcia Boone]

It is easy and about the same as other places with free WIFI. ATL has a lot of places and I use them all over the metro area with no problem. I love iPhone~~

[ralphdaily]

I used my iPhone at Starbucks this morning and the login was almost instantaneous. It was faster than normal user and password. The design seems fine once you actually use it rather than read it. ralph

[i_am_still_wade]

Beggars can't be choosers. If you were paying for it, you would have a gripe. But since it is free, BE HAPPY THAT IT IS FREE! My first car was an ugly blue station wagon. Until I could afford to get my own car, I was happy to have that. My choice was an ugly blue station wagon or no car at all. Well, since your choice is free Wi-Fi that is a little annoying or no Wi-Fi at all, be happy with you get.

[Perry_Clease]

Okay I just came back from a walk up the street to the Mile of Free WiFi at our local mall. It looks like the "Known networks will be joined automatically" feature of my iPhone worked when I stopped at the Starbucks. Now I am thinking that this is just for that particular Starbucks and the ones that I have not visited will require me to login, I will try that at different Starbucks when I am out of my comfort zone.

Sidebar, I walked around the mall and I can not believe how many unsecured WiFi networks I saw, maybe 20% of them. I did not join them, but there was no padlock icon alongside their name so I guess i could have. By the network name they looked they were for retails shops and not the places advertising free WiFi. Walking home through the residential area all of the WiFi networks, and there were a lot of them, were locked. 2Wire was the most popular.

[brillianta]

A nifty alternative is a $1 Wifitrack application from Bitrino. It scans for Wifi networks. Not free, but pretty convenient, given the number of open networks out there....

[Nyco_F]

Mr. Shankland definitely found his dream job. Where else can one find a forum to use old hacker slang? Anyway...data services are nickle and dime-ing us left and right. In this financially worrisome blip* you could set that free hoop on fire and I would jump through it gladly.

Regards,
Nyco

* blip=quasi-optimism

[mikepratt]

Well - I offer a more Rafe-friendly opinion here. It's Starbucks that doesn't get it. The whole model of theirs stores is to encourage people to loiter...and then buy more coffee. Its' the whole coffee house and hang out thing. Everything they do in the setup their stores promotes this...except free WiFi. Sure they can do what they want but if they thought bigger picture they'd realize that, for $40/mo for a cable hookup, they could offer everyone in the stores surfability. No logins or stupid hoops that AT&T wants you to jump through. Our Starbucks has a Cosi next door. Cosi offers free no hoop jumping WiFi. All my friends hand in Starbucks, esp on Sat morning, surfing the Cosi waves. It makes you wonder what's more important to Starbucks to want to squeeze the extra money. Not it's merely free and inconvenient. Rafe, I agree.

[clamenza]

So Cosi pays for the service and Starbucks gets the customers?

[tcampb01]

AT&T tried to launch this service before (actually I think they made two attempts). But the means to determine if you were a customer were too easy to spoof and they ended up with everyone taking advantage. They only checked the browser version and asked for your phone number. But browser versions are very easy to alter and since they did nothing to verify if you were the owner of the phone number, you could just type in the phone number of anyone you knew on AT&T. People quickly figured out how to outsmart the system.

Transmitting a final SMS text message to the phone (and having the user click the link in the text to prove they got the message) verifies that the user must actually be holding the iPhone in their hot little hands and, therefore, a valid customer (not just typing in someone else's number).

This is basically a "poor man's" version of two-factor authentication. It proves you not only "know" something the real account holder would know... it also makes you prove you "possess" something the real account holder would possess.

I think it's completely reasonable and, frankly, if more online banks would do the same thing, we'd have fewer phishing scams.

[aml_england]

Apple and AT&T should copy the system being used here in the UK. iPhone users in the UK have free Wi-Fi access to over 9,000 hotspots, provided by British Telecom's "BT OpenZone."

Registration takes less than a minute and only involves a one off question, which prompts users to simply enter their phone number -- once. After that, the system recognizes the user automatically, time after time and day after day. Wonderful!

[elemgee]

This problem also exists for AT&T cellular modem customers that are supposed to have access to "free Wi-Fi at AT&T locations"
In order to authenticate to the AT&T hotspot (such as those at Starbucks) you have to use the AT&T connection manager and have your cellular modem plugged in because AT&T uses your cellular account for authentication.

I will not talk too much about this because I want to keep my blood pressure under control, but it is the most frustrating aspects of an otherwise satisfactory service. In addition to the hassle and hoop-jumping, this makes Wi-Fi unavailable to Macintosh users because AT&T does not have a method for authenticating them such as the Connection Manager does on the Windows side.

If I can use the cellular modem from the Mac side, it is laziness at best (and fraud at worst) that the "free Wi-Fi" that comes with my service is not available to me.

[scaught78]

I have text messaging shut off on my iPhone. I can't even receive a text message (sorry, I don't like it and don't want to pay for it). I guess I will be SOL when it comes to using this sevice.

[ibeetle]

Text messages generated by Apple or AT&T are free to the receiver. I have contact from Apple and AT&T by eMail/Text message setup on my user account. Whenever I receive a text contact from either of them the last line is always "You will not be charged for this message"

You can also set up your phone/account to only receive text messages from certain people. So you can set up your phone only to receive communication from AT&T and/or Apple.

[Perry_Clease]

I have yet to receive the text message on my iPhone, but I have received an email to the MobileMe address I have registered with my AT&T iPhone service.

You're complaining about this? Really?

First off, it's easy to log in. Minimal effort to login to a FREE service. I appreciate that AT&T keeps adding services for the iPhone. It's easy to bash large corporations, but I'm saying thanks for this move. Keep it up.

[nordstrl]

It's FREE? All caps makes something TRUE? Sorry, all caps lacks verisimilitude. If iPhone users didn't have to pay a data plan as a requirement of having a iPhone, then it would indeed be free (lowercase).

Are you SURE that you have to SUBSCRIBE to a DATA plan if you have an iPHONE? MeTHINKS you can get a voiceplan ONLY. LOL!

Did my USE of caps GET under your sKin?

Lighten up Francis (oldschool movie quote)

[nordstrl]

The first sentence of AT&T's iPhone terms and conditions data section reads: "An eligible data plan for iPhone is required." So do your research or ****.