In May of last year, AT&T launched a free Wi-Fi “hot zone” for AT&T customers in New York City’s Times Square, in order to help take some of the heat off of their 3G network in the area.

After tests found the offloading quite useful in relieving network strain, AT&T expanded the project to include free Wi-Fi in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Chicago.

Verizon now says they’ll be following AT&T’s lead and launching their own hot zones in high-traffic locations such as hotels, stadiums and college campuses. There’s still no announcement about locations or scale, though the service should arrive for both EVDO and LTE customers sometime this year.
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