Man, I’d be pissed if I were an AT&T iPhone user, and I’m pretty sure you would be too, after reading all about your mobile carrier offering free Wi-Fi access to the precious iPhone, only to retract that statement shortly thereafter. I don’t mean to place the importance of having free Wi-Fi access alongside more important things in life, but to have a company offer the hope of such convenience only to pull back its statement a while later can be quite a killjoy. Worse still is the fact that this is not the first time as it has happened before, which pretty much reminds me of Aesop’s Fables and the boy who cried wolf. While any publicity (good or otherwise) is supposed to be good, one such as this leaving no goodwill whatsoever will be viewed with disdain by the majority.

This gaffe comes about within less than half a year as AT&T mistakenly published a notice on its Web site indicating that Apple iPhone users would get free access to the wireless operator’s more than 17,000 Wi-Fi hot spots around the country. This news has been reported since Friday morning with claims that the notice has been live before 8:30 a.m. PDT, but it is presumed that AT&T folk managed to catch wind of it shortly thereafter, removing it by 9.30am. I wonder whether it was a blog-reading employee who traced down this error?

The notice published in error before it was removed is as follows: “AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and free Wi-Fi even hotter, which is why we are proud to offer iPhone customers free access to the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hot-spot network with more than 17,000 hot spots, including Starbucks. Now users can relax and access music, e-mail, and Web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their favorite location.”

Source: CNET