AT&T giveth free Jesus Phone WiFi

And AT&T taketh away

By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Wireless, 5th May 2008 18:11 GMT

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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. ®

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