Following a successful pilot program, AT&T* today announced plans to expand its deployment of AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones to additional locations in major markets, starting with the expansion of its existing Times Square Wi-Fi hotzone and new hotzones near Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. In addition, AT&T plans to launch its next Wi-Fi hotzone in San Francisco’s popular Embarcadero Center.

Earlier this year, AT&T deployed Wi-Fi hotzones in New York City’s Times Square, downtown Charlotte, N.C., and Chicago’s Wrigleyville as part of its pilot project to explore using Wi-Fi to supplement mobile broadband in urban areas with consistently high mobile broadband use. In just a few months during the pilot, AT&T customers made more than 350,000 connections at the three hotzones.

“Our initial AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones have received great customer response and supported high data traffic,” said John Donovan, AT&T 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.”

“We’re excited to start the next phase of our hotzone program with additional Wi-Fi coverage areas in New York City and, soon, in San Francisco,” said Angie Wiskocil, senior vice president, AT&T Wi-Fi Services. “AT&T Wi-Fi will be available across a wider area for Manhattan residents, visitors and New Year’s Eve revelers during the busy holiday season and beyond. Plus, San Francisco residents are expected to soon be able to enjoy a Wi-Fi hotzone in the Embarcadero Center area as they shop, dine and work.”

The larger Times Square hotzone will now cover the north central part of Times Square along 7th Avenue, east along 46th Street, and along Broadway. New hotzones near Rockefeller Center and St. Patrick’s Cathedral are planned to launch in the coming days.

Hotzones enhance the broadband experience for AT&T customers who use Wi-Fi enabled devices. Wi-Fi hotzones provide another fast and reliable way for customers to stay connected from their mobile devices, adding data network capacity in high traffic areas. AT&T customers with qualifying wireless data, LaptopConnect and AT&T High Speed Internet plans get unlimited access to AT&T hotzones at no additional cost.

AT&T is using wireless technologies to mobilize everything that’s important to customers — their favorite content, apps, entertainment and social networks. AT&T today delivers the nation’s fastest mobile broadband experience nationwide as well as the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network**, giving customers the best combination of speed and coverage.

The popularity of Wi-Fi continues to grow as more and more consumers adopt Wi-Fi enabled devices and experience the convenience and speed of a Wi-Fi connection. In the third quarter 2010, AT&T handled 106.9 million Wi-Fi connections on its network, exceeding the total 85.5 million connections made during the entire year in 2009.

Many of the most popular AT&T smartphones support auto-authentication at AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots, making it automatic and convenient for customers to connect. Customers can use AT&T Wi-Fi hotzones and more than 23,000 AT&T Wi-Fi Hot Spots nationwide without it counting toward their monthly smartphone data usage.

AT&T’s Wi-Fi network complements its wired and mobile broadband networks, offering Wi-Fi connectivity at popular locations like retail stores, restaurants and coffee shops from coast-to-coast. For more information on AT&T Wi-Fi and how to connect, visit www.att.com/wifiaccess.

The Ovation MC545 is based on the 3GPP Release 8 standard. DC-HSPA+ supports theoretical peak downlink data rates of up to 42 Mbps and 5.7 Mbps on the uplink, allowing carriers to easily upgrade their existing infrastructure equipment to achieve significantly higher bandwidths. Other than providing on the go mobile broadband, the USB toggle also comes with a MicroSDHC memory card slot to double it as a memory stick for data storage.

[via SlashGear]

“With the iSpot, Apple customers don’t have to sort through confusing service plans with overage fees, nor do they have to worry about how much data they’re using,” said Thomas Enraght-Moony, senior vice president of marketing at Clearwire. “Instead, with CLEAR, customers can run all of their Apple mobile devices at true broadband speeds for a single, simple monthly fee.”

The iSpot is available http://www.clear.com and available in authorized dealers beginning today. The iSpot has an MSRP of $99.99 and you can subscribe to the unlimited 4G data plan for $25 monthly without a required term contract.

Existing Sprint customers can switch to the new Simply Everything plan + Mobile Broadband bundle without a contract extension. The bundle is available on new lines of activation with a two-year agreement per line and includes activation on a Sprint Simply Everything plan and a Mobile Broadband Connection plan.

“With the new Simply Everything plan + Mobile Broadband, customers get the benefits of Sprint’s Now Network on their phone and on their laptop, so they’re not tethered to their home or office,” said Jeff Hallock, vice president of consumer marketing for Sprint. “Whether it’s to get work done at the airport or in between client meetings, finish a school project in the park or keep in touch with family while you’re at the coffee shop, this plan allows Sprint customers to access the Internet at 3G speeds almost anywhere to do more and save more on America’s most dependable 3G network.”

The development will be driven by consumer demand for ubiquitous Internet access. Rather than replacing fixed networks for Internet access, mobile broadband will first and foremost be a complementary access technology, providing a secondary Internet connection when outside of the home. As embedded HSPA/LTE chipsets gradually become a standard feature in notebook PCs designed for the European market over the coming three to five years, end-users will simply need to insert a SIM-card into their computer to get online at virtually any location. Berg Insight believes mobile operators will face a formidable challenge in managing the explosion in network utilisation.

Mobile data traffic, primarily generated by USB-sticks and PC-cards, already exceeds mobile voice traffic in terms of volumes on advanced markets. In Sweden for example, some half a million mobile broadband terminals are estimated to have generated twice as much network load as all 10 million handsets in the country combined. Consumers already account for 80 percent of the data volume in spite of only making up roughly 40 percent of the mobile broadband subscriber base.

 ”Every mobile broadband service provider has a dilemma”, said Tobias Ryberg, senior analyst, Berg Insight. “On the one hand they have a highly attractive proposition – a novel mobile service with high ARPU. On the other hand, the very popularity of the service stretches the mobile network infrastructure to its utmost limit – threatening to degrade the level of service for all subscribers.” The main response by operators has been to impose some restrictions on data traffic. Furthermore, the actual data speed is normally much lower than advertised due to lack of network capacity.

Ryberg concludes that significant network investments are urgently needed if operators want to keep up with demand. “In a few years, Internet users will expect to be able to view full-HD streaming IPTV via their Internet connection. Then it will not do to offer 14.4 Mbps which is actually 1 Mbps or unlimited data traffic which is in reality limited to a few gigabyte per month,” he concluded.

The Compass 597 USB modem by Sierra Wireless features automatic installation of Sprint SmartView software and one-touch activation on the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network for both Mac and PC users. Wherever EV-DO Rev. A network coverage is available, download speeds average between 600 kilobits per second (kbps) and 1.4 megabits per second (Mbps) and upload speeds average 350 to 500 kbps. This device is also backwards compatible to EV-DO Rev. 0 and 1XRTT technology in areas where EV-DO Rev. A is not yet available.

In addition to e-mail and Internet access, the Compass 597 USB modem by Sierra Wireless offers GPS support, enabling the use of location search and common navigational software tools on a notebook computer via Sprint SmartView. Users can find nearby restaurants, gas stations, banks and more without entering their current location, as the GPS capabilities of the Compass chart your current location automatically. The Compass 597 also includes a microSD expansion slot for supplemental storage or file transfers and supports memory cards up to 32 GB.

The new Compass 597 by Sierra Wireless is expected to be available later this month for $49.99 with a two-year service agreement and $50 mail-in-rebate. Service plan options include $39.99 for 40 MB a month or $59.99 for unlimited use with a two-year service contract.