Using T-Mobile Hot Spots

Using T-Mobile Hot Spots
The biggest hot spot provider in the United States today — at least in terms
of companies that run their own hot spots — is T-Mobile (www.t-mobile.com).
T-Mobile has hot spots up and running in over 2,000 locations, primarily at
Starbucks coffee shops in over 20 states. T-Mobile got into the hot spot business
when it purchased the assets of a startup company named Mobilestar,
which made the initial deal with Starbucks to provide wireless access in
these coffee shops.
T-Mobile has branched out beyond Starbucks and currently is also offering
access in American Airlines Admirals Clubs in a few dozen airports as well as a
handful of other locations. T-Mobile charges $29.99 a month for unlimited local
access (meaning at any T-Mobile location in your town) and $39.99 monthly for
national unlimited access. A monthly download limit is imposed; if you download
more than 500MB of data a month, you’ll have to pay a small charge (a
quarter) for each additional MB. And if you don’t have the national plan, you’ll
pay 15 cents per minute of online time when you’re using the service remotely.
T-Mobile also offers some corporate accounts (for those forward-thinking
companies that encourage their employees to drink quadruple Americanos
during working hours. . . Danny, are you listening?), prepaid account options,
and pay-as-you-go plans.
To try T-Mobile hot spots out for free, register on T-Mobile’s site at www.
t-mobile.com/hotspot.
T-Mobile, like most hot spot companies, uses your Web browser to log you in
and activate your service. You need to set the Service Set Identifier (SSID) in
your wireless network adapter’s client software to tmobile to get on the network.
(Check out Part III of the book for information on how to do this on
your laptop or handheld.)