Users of the iPhone OS 3.0 who connect to
AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots can now have auto-authentication facilities from AT&T (
News -
Alert). This new policy from the company allows the users to switch seamlessly between AT&T’s 3G network AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spot without being prompted, states AT&T.
Earlier, if iPhone (
News -
Alert) users wanted to connect to AT&T's Wi-Fi, they had to go through a two-step authentication process. With the new procedure, auto-connect is established after the user connects her iPhone to an AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot for the first time. The company has about 20,000 U.S.
hotspots at airports, coffee shops, which includes Starbucks, and other retail outlets, such as Barnes & Noble booksellers, as well as at McDonald's restaurants.
The Wi-Fi usage continues to experience rapid growth, mainly because of proliferation of Wi-Fi enabled devices. AT&T’s U.S. Hot Spots with smartphones made more than 4 million connections at its U.S. Hot Spots with smartphones, including the iPhone 3G, in the first quarter of 2009 alone.
“Auto-authentication makes it even easier for iPhone customers to stay connected on the nation’s fastest 3G network and the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network,” said Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO, AT&T mobility and consumer markets, in a statement. “With access to our U.S. hotspots, customers are receiving a great value, with a fast, reliable broadband connection virtually anywhere, through 3G or Wi-Fi.”
The new auto-authentication process is available to all existing iPhone and iPhone 3G customers. They can simply download the free iPhone OS 3.0 software update via iTunes. Once product goes on sale on June 19, this facility will also be available to all iPhone 3G S customers.
Recently, AT&T
improved its offer for the
Cisco Telepresence (
News -
Alert) service. The company claims this solution will help the users to conduct meetings that are encrypted for business and security reasons. With this new solution, companies can now get collaboration tools that improve productivity and help reduce costs such as business travel. AT&T has collaborated with Cisco (
News -
Alert) since 2008 and has facilitated the growth and use of Cisco TelePresence technology.
Raju Shanbhag is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Raju’s articles, please visit his columnist page.
Edited by
Amy Tierney