Qwest Offers Free Wi-Fi

Thanks to a recent partnership with AT&T, Qwest will provide its customers with free wireless Internet service. All Qwest broadband Internet subscribers will be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi at any of AT&T's 17,000 wireless hotspots.

Qwest decided to sign a contract with AT&T, following a study released by Impulse Research Corporation, stating that 'nearly half of all respondents valued Wi-Fi because it provided them with the freedom and flexibility to stay connected beyond the office or home.' According to Executive Vice President of Qwest's Mass Markets Organization, Dan Yost, the study also discovered that almost half of the individuals surveyed felt 'antsy' if they went more than one hour without access to e-mail.

In 2008, AT&T began to actively broaden its wireless Internet availability by offering Wi-Fi service in more than 7,000 Starbucks across the United States. In purchasing Wayport, an applications and network management firm that delivers back-office management for wireless hot spots, AT&T expanded its scope of Wi-Fi offerings. The Starbucks transaction and the Wayport acquisition, when combined, helped the Dallas-based company extend its wireless Internet reach to approximately 20,000 regions in America, and over 80,000 locations around the globe.

According to AT&T, the company's broadband users took advantage of AT&T wireless Internet hot spots more than 10 million times during the first quarter of 2009. That is over triple the amount of times AT&T subscribers utilized its Wi-Fi hot spots during the first quarter of 2008. Why such substantial growth? The telecom giant attributes the increase in demand to two possibilities: the extension of AT&T's wireless Internet footprint and the growing availability of Wi-Fi capable products.