AT&T giveth free Jesus Phone WiFi
And AT&T taketh away
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For several days, AT&T was offering free WiFi to anyone with a Safari browser and a little common sense. But it seems the company has put a stop to such generosity.
On Wednesday, Macrumors.com reported that AT&T's WiFi hotspot service - which just hit 7,000 Starbucks coffee shops across the US - was coughing up free access to all Jesus Phone disciples. When hitting a Starbucks hotspot, disciples were presented with an official-looking screen that read "Free AT&T WiFi for iPhone." All they had to do was key in their phone number.
But it wasn't long before MacRumors readers realized they could nab free access without a Jesus Phone. Simply by spoofing the user agent on a Safari browser and keying in someone else's Jesus Phone number - hardly a difficult task - they could bypass AT&T's security from any ordinary laptop. If you can call it security.
Yes, Steve Jobs is on a mission to inflate Safari's market share. But we can safely that he's stopped short of a sweeping conspiracy involving AT&T. According to those Macrumors readers, AT&T has now turned off its free WiFi screen. We can only assume that the company didn't realize that laptop users could grab a free ride too.
When we asked the company if has indeed shut off free WiFi access for Jesus Phones, it did not respond. But AT&T has yet to acknowledge that the service even existed in the first place. ®
COMMENTS
@ Logic Free Zone
The ones buying coffee, rather then sitting on the bench outside I would have thought.
You star in widely distributed hotel promotional videos for a living?
WARNING! Logic free zone!
@Christian Berger
'Also, if you make it free, you'll get a lot more people using it - making the connection a lot slower for your paying customers...'
Shall we examine that assertion with logic enabled?
'Also, if you MAKE IT FREE, you'll get a lot more people using it - making the connection a lot slower for YOUR PAYING CUSTOMERS...'
WHAT paying customers? You just made it FREE! If it's FREE, by definition there are NO paying customers - there may have been, once upon a time, but YOU just made it FREE! Remember?
Hah! You throw user manuals together for a living, don't you? :-)
Not worth it
If you have to use Safari...
Even having to spoof the User-Agent is bad enough....
Anon due to flamebait
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