Just in time for New Year’s Eve, AT&T is pushing revelers off its 3G network onto a newly expanded Wi-Fi hotzone that encompasses Times Square.

It’s all part of AT&T’s plans to improve connectivity for smartphone customers enduring the company’s overburdened 3G network.  A year ago, it could take 10 minutes or more for an AT&T smartphone user in a crowd to bring up a single web page.  That’s because too many other AT&T customers were trying to do the same thing at the same time.

In Times Square, where an estimated one million people are expected to ring in the new year, it’s a safe bet more than 200,000 AT&T customers will try and upload photos and send New Year greetings to friends and family back home.  They’ll have a better chance of success using AT&T’s Wi-Fi.

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An AT&T social media representative introduces the new hotzone in Times Square.  (1 minute)

AT&T has been installing hotzones, accessible by their customers, in large gathering spots in cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco to address complaints from customers about network congestion.

“Our initial AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones have received great customer response and supported high data traffic,” says John Donovan, AT&T’s chief technology officer. “The pilot demonstrated the clear benefits of having fast and readily-available Wi-Fi options for our customers and our network, and so we have decided to deploy hotzones in more locations.”

AT&T’s outdoor hotzones typically deliver a signal across several city blocks and are intended for those on the go.  They join more than 20,000 indoor Wi-Fi hotspots already accessible to AT&T customers.

A strong Wi-Fi signal means reduced battery consumption and faster speeds.  And unlike AT&T’s 3G network, using Wi-Fi won’t eat into your monthly usage allowance, a major issue for those facing AT&T’s Internet Overcharging scheme on the wireless side, which delivers only 2GB of service per month before overlimit fees kick in.

But Wi-Fi alone cannot work miracles, and AT&T has no idea whether the hotzone in Times Square will have enough capacity to meet customer needs.  But the company is satisfied that it will certainly help, which is why it plans to continue installing the outdoor networks in other high volume areas.

Verizon Wireless already operates its own Wi-Fi network in Times Square for many of the same reasons.

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AT&T explains how to use their Wi-Fi network.  (5 minutes)

AT&T today launched its latest Hotzone Wi-Fi service in Wrigleyville, the neighborhood of restaurants and shops surrounding Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs. The new Wi-Fi hotzone provides coverage along the streets and in the outdoor areas of Wrigleyville on the south, east and west sides of the stadium.

The Chicago AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone is the third to be deployed as part of a pilot project to examine using Wi-Fi to supplement AT&T’s mobile broadband coverage in areas with consistently high 3G traffic and mobile data use. The first pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone launched in New York City’s Times Square in May.

“We are excited to introduce an AT&T Wi-Fi hotzone in Wrigleyville, on the heels of successful hotzone launches in New York and Charlotte. These pilot AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones give us the opportunity to explore new ways to utilize our Wi-Fi and 3G networks to deliver the best possible experience for our customers,” said Dave Fine, vice president and general manager of AT&T in Illinois.

“We couldn’t be more pleased that AT&T has selected Wrigleyville as one of its three Wi-Fi hotzone locations,” said Jerry Roper, president and CEO of Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce. “This is great news for businesses in this vibrant neighborhood, as it offers Chicagoans and visitors yet another reason to experience all that the Wrigleyville area has to offer.”

AT&T's Hotzone surrounds Wrigley Field in Chicago (click to enlarge)

The Hotzone concept is designed to offload traffic away from AT&T’s congested 3G wireless network onto lower cost Wi-Fi service.  The Wi-Fi network is also expected to be faster than AT&T’s 3G network which may help drive AT&T customers towards using it.  There are no additional charges or usage limits for AT&T customers to access the Hotzone.

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Chicago Traveler produced a short video introducing tourists to what’s on offer in Wrigleyville other than AT&T’s Hotzone.  (3 minutes)

AT&T's HotZone in Charlotte only covers a tiny portion of the city, along S. Brevard Street between the NASCAR Hall of Fame and East Trade Street and for AT&T customers waiting to use the nearby Lynx light rail.

What do you do when your wireless 3G network capacity is hopelessly overloaded and you don’t want to spend the money to upgrade the network to meet the daily demands your customers place on it?  You offload as much of that traffic as possible on less costly, conventional Wi-Fi network technology.

AT&T has discovered that Wi-Fi can turn an ugly congestion problem into a marketing opportunity.  The company has announced free, unlimited access to its increasing number of “Hotzones” to AT&T wireless customers, promising stronger signals and faster speeds along the way.  The three cities chosen for the launch of the neighborhood-blanketing Wi-Fi service are New York, Charlotte, N.C.,  and Chicago.

That New York and Chicago are on the list come as little surprise, but why Charlotte?

It turns out Charlotte is among the top-10 cities companies use to test market new products and services to get a better feel of how customers will react.  Charlotte has served as a test market for years.  FedEx used the city to test drop boxes inside U.S. post offices back in 2001.  Time Warner Cable brought its “Start Over” and “Caller ID on TV” services to Charlotte to get customer reaction.  AT&T first test marketed its 3G Microcell service in the area, so the company has a track record of choosing the community to test its newest offerings.

Stop the Cap! has been measuring reaction on our own to learn what Charlotte residents think about AT&T’s Hotzone.

First, many AT&T customers are still unaware that this Wi-Fi service has even made it to Charlotte.  For those who have learned about it, anything that improves AT&T’s service in uptown Charlotte is good news for them.

“Although AT&T in Charlotte has never suffered from the kind of congestion faced in larger cities, when you concentrate a lot of data users in one area, such as the Time Warner Cable Arena on East Trade, AT&T’s network can slow to a crawl,” writes Stop the Cap! reader Eric, who lives in Charlotte.  “I have ventured around that area several times and, to be honest, you can quietly hop on one of many business Wi-Fi hotspots for free now, but you can’t go too far before losing the signal.”

Eric says AT&T would be better off extending their Wi-Fi network across the city of Charlotte if they really want to offload 3G traffic.

“Wi-Fi is faster than their 3G service and it’s unlimited,” he notes. “I’d actually have a much more favorable impression of AT&T if they created city-wide Wi-Fi networks for their customers because it would add tremendous value and be a great reason to stick with AT&T for cell service.”

But Liam, who works in downtown Charlotte but lives near Freedom Park writes it’s a Band-Aid for a much bigger problem — AT&T underestimating the demand on their network.

“I am not sure how excited I should be about a Hotzone that runs up a street for about four city blocks,” he says.  “This is not midtown Manhattan where a service like that could make a huge difference for residents of skyscraping-condos and apartment buildings.  What about the rest of Charlotte?”

Liam was an AT&T customer but left for Verizon Wireless nearly a year ago.  He thinks AT&T isn’t a bad provider in Charlotte — in fact he thinks AT&T does a much better job in rural western North Carolina than Verizon does, but inside metro Charlotte, Verizon’s signals are more consistent.

“If this service does reach into Time Warner Cable Arena, it could make a big difference though, especially when that stadium is nearly full,” Liam notes. “Somehow I think we’ll see Time Warner Cable’s own Wi-Fi service operating there, for free, in the not-too-distant future.”

The Charlotte Observer‘s @Charlotte blog asked readers what they thought about AT&T’s Charlotte Hotzone in two articles.  Amidst a rhetorical war over the merits of AT&T and Apple’s latest iPhone, most comments welcomed the improved service, even if some are not sure exactly where that improved service can be found.

Reporter Eric Frazier wrote, “I was trying to find out for certain whether this zone will cover the office towers along Tryon Street, but a spokesperson for AT&T told me they can’t say whether specific buildings, such as the Bank of America headquarters, will or won’t be covered by the Hotzone.

Reverend Mike wants to know when he can get a Hotzone installed in his backyard, noting he was “glad to hear they are setting this up downtown.”

AT&T completed upgrades to its HSPA 7.2 network earlier this year and offers about double the potential speed its older 3G network provided Charlotte customers.

Bright House Networks Thursday switched on a huge network of free Wi-Fi hotspots for its broadband customers across central Florida.  Concentrated on coastal beach communities in eastern Florida and in the cities of Orlando, Tampa, and St. Petersburg, the new Wi-Fi service can be found on beaches and parks, inside malls and shopping destinations, downtown business districts, and medical facilities across their Florida service area.

Bright House Networks Wi-Fi Coverage Map

Existing Bright House broadband customers can log in and use the service for free:

• Most wireless devices will display available networks. If the device doesn’t show networks, open the network options and select My BrightHouse or Bright House Networks.
• Open the Internet browser of your choice.
• When the WiFi HotZones page opens, click ‘log in’ under Bright House Road Runner Customer.
• Log in using Road Runner email and password or My Services credentials.
• Agree to the terms of use and connect to the WiFi network.

Non-customers can purchase access with a credit card in increments of as little as three hours.  Stop the Cap! readers in central Florida report speed test results of around 5/1Mbps from many of the Wi-Fi locations, which is much better than many other publicly available Wi-Fi networks.

Bright House says it has launched the Wi-Fi service to help customers hang on to their usage-limited mobile broadband allowances.

“We’re trying to save our customers money, time and energy,” Bright House spokesman Donald Forbes said.  “Plus, Wi-Fi is so much faster and such a better connection.”

Cable provider-delivered Wi-Fi is often used by the industry as a customer retention tool and goodwill gesture.  It typically uses the company’s pre-existing broadband infrastructure, which keeps costs low.

Bright House is soliciting customer feedback about possible new locations for future Wi-Fi hotspots.  The company plans to add at least 2,000 additional hotspots by the end of this year.

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Bright House produced this informational video introducing its Wi-Fi service.  (2 minutes)

AT&T is having trouble meeting the wireless needs of its customers in major cities like New York and San Francisco, so it is experimenting with free Wi-Fi connections in particularly crowded parts of its service area.

AT&T’s Wi-Fi “hotzone” launched Tuesday in Times Square.  The service has been installed near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th street, and is designed for outdoor users.  Any AT&T customer can connect to the service with any Wi-Fi capable device.

AT&T has been promoting free use of its indoor Wi-Fi connections for customers for well over a year because it helps reduce demand on its 3G mobile broadband network.  Developing outdoor hotzones in densely populated cities like New York could offload considerably more traffic from congested 3G cell sites.

The company hopes that free Wi-Fi will prove more attractive to customers than 3G because it can deliver faster speed connections and won’t suffer from slowdowns that have become all too common on the company’s 3G network.

If the experiment proves successful, AT&T will consider expanding it to other cities where the company faces congestion issues.

AT&T's Hotzone in Times Square covers a narrow outdoor area bordering W. 45th Street and W. 47th Street near 7th Avenue.