Free AT&T Wi-Fi Offer Extended to More DSL Subscribers - AT&T this week announced that DSL subscribers at service levels as low as 1.5 Mbps downstream (which includes the vast majority of DSL customers) will now have access to the company’s 10,000 public Wi-Fi hotspots free of additional charge. The service, which had been available to higher-speed DSL subscribers, is available in locations like McDonald’s restaurants, Barnes & Noble bookstores, and many airports. Since the offer only applies to customers at the 1.5 Mbps speed level of service and up, it likely won’t apply to subscribers of the 769 kbps $10 DSL offer. Based on the company’s press release, it should apply to the $19.99 “naked” DSL subscribers, since they are receiving the minimum 1.5 Mbps downstream speeds. Tech-savvy consumers who want to use low-cost VoIP calling services like Skype could use these free hotspots to make long-distance calls (particularly internationally) while on the go, as long as they are in range of a hotspot. Another use of the free Wi-Fi offer could be to check prices online of products available in stores serviced by AT&T Wi-Fi. Book prices and reviews, for example, could be checked against Amazon.com from a laptop or PDA connected via the Wi-Fi hotspot at Barnes and Noble. Consumers with Macs can even share their connections with a non-AT&T Wi-Fi subscriber by following these instructions. Windows XP and Vista users can find instructions on how to do the same by clicking here and here, respectively.
New Study Highlights the Usefulness of 4-1-1 Alternatives - Consumers are increasingly turning to their cell phones for help when they need information while on the go. A friend’s phone number, the location of the nearest pizza parlor, and any number of other types of information are available from mobile search services. Mobile search is big business too. According to data released by Nielsen Mobile this week, more than 46 million mobile data users in the U.S. used a mobile search function in the third quarter of 2007. Of those, 18.1 million used some form of 4-1-1, followed by text message-based searching at 14.1 million users. What many consumers should keep in mind is that calls to 4-1-1 from their mobile phone are generally not free. Most carriers charge hefty fees for this service. Consumers comfortable with text-messaging could save by using a free SMS-based search by companies like Google SMS, Mosio, or textChaCha. Generally, the only fees associated with these services are the cost of sending and receiving the text messages. Other companies like 1-800-FREE-411 and 1-800-411-SAVE offer traditional voice-based 4-1-1 at no cost aside from airtime usage. For Web-enabled phones, www.whitepages.com also works well. As a rule of thumb, try saving a free 4-1-1 service number in your handset’s contact list and enter instructions for using a SMS-based search in your handset’s notepad application. By doing this, consumers have an easy to way get the information they need cheaply (or for free), before resorting to a fee-based 4-1-1 service. To read more about the Nielsen survey, click here.
Use Google Reader to Easily Make Websites Mobile-Friendly - Cell phone users are increasingly using their handsets to check their favorite websites for new information. Unfortunately, due to the small sizes and relatively low resolution of typical handset screens, visual clutter like banner ads and other graphics can make sites hard to read on cell phones. Fortunately, there is a fairly painless solution. When accessing a site from your handset’s web browser, simply append the site’s Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed address onto the end of the following URL:
http://www.google.com/reader/m/view/feed/[feed_address]
This will enable the viewer to see the mobile-friendly text of the site they want to see without the images and banner ads. Users don’t even need a Gmail or Google Reader account to make the trick work. The hardest part of this process is having the RSS feed address handy to type in to the handset’s browser. A good way to get around this is by texting or e-mailing your handset the URL noted above with the RSS feeds of several of your favorite content sources. That way you’ll have the URL handy all the time in your received messages folder.
INTERESTING LINKS
FCC Main Page: http://www.fcc.gov
FCC Complaint Form - http://svartifoss2.fcc.gov/cib/fcc475.cfm
List of State Regulatory Commissions: http://www.naruc.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=15
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