T-Mobile Opens Wi-Fi to Katrina Victims

By Ed Oswald, BetaNews

August 31, 2005, 12:41 PM

Many residents of the hurricane stricken areas of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama remain without power and no reliable connection to the outside world. T-Mobile is attempting to alleviate some of that suffering by opening up its hotspots in those three states to the public through Friday. The company would reevaluate the situation at that time.

T-Mobile said that the offer only extends to its wireless Internet services. "This free offer for the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama is for Wi-Fi service only, not T-Mobile voice services," the company said. The company offers service at Borders, FedEx/Kinko's and Starbucks among other locations.

Add a Comment (13 Comments)

BetaNews reserves the right to remove any comment at any time for any reason. Please keep your responses appropriate and on topic. Foul language and personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Name (required):

E-mail (required):

Enter Your Comment:

By Kompressor

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 9:13 PM

Everything is FREE in Louisiana! Limited time! Get it while it's hot!

Score: 0

By MakeADifference

edited Sep 4, 2005 - 7:51 PM

Regardless of T-Mobile's "media stunt", it's more than you're probably doing.

Score: 0

By iamtux

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 11:07 PM

you sir, should be taken out and shot for that comment, that is not funny on so many levels.

Score: 0

By miz1980

edited Aug 24, 2007 - 9:16 PM

Score: 0

By jcorque

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 4:25 PM

At times like this no one should look at this as anything other than a company reaching out to help those in need. I have to wonder if any of these skeptics or negative ppl would be making comments if they were the victims! In 1970 after Hurricane Celia struck here we suffered without power, phone service and water for over a month. I would have been grateful to a company like T-mobile if that technology was around during that time.

Score: 0

By ServerMechanic

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 4:22 PM

Hahahahahaha....

You all suck.

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Yuck Fou.

Score: 0

By Neoprimal

edited Aug 31, 2005 - 3:33 PM

This is a genuinely good deed. Those with wifi access will be able to use it to contact friends and family where phonelines and cell towers are down....
Only the ungrateful or those with really shallow minds would scoff at this. They don't really need to open it longer than friday, but the news report says they'll open it till friday; "The company would reevaluate the situation at that time" so they may open it for a longer period.
This is an open invitation to have ppl with the technology send an 'I'm ok' to family or loved ones who are worried.

___________________________
By ServerMechanic posted Aug 31, 2005 - 2:38 PM

Opening Wi-Fi to the public through Friday? That's great 'cause everything will be fixed on Friday. Morons.

This is just a publicity stunt to get their name out there. Real nice.
___________________________

Would you rather they not open it up at all? 4-5 days is good enough, you want them to keep it open till' everything IS fixed? dumba**. Stop looking for the negative in things and appreciate them for the good they can provide. Damn...

Score: 0

By ServerMechanic

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 2:38 PM

Opening Wi-Fi to the public through Friday? That's great 'cause everything will be fixed on Friday. Morons.

This is just a publicity stunt to get their name out there. Real nice.

Score: 0

By snoopy3216

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 3:31 PM

i swear thats the dumbest thing you ever said ServerMechanic, complete idiot!

Score: 0

By funcheung

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 2:14 PM

i wonder where those ppl can find a pda/notebook to wifi ?!

Score: 0

By DarkOne123

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 6:26 PM

funcheung: People are looting there. No joke I saw it on TV 3 guys come out of a store with the entire shelve with food on it, you know someone will loot tvs, PCs etc etc

Score: 0

By MakeADifference

posted Sep 4, 2005 - 7:54 PM

The people that are looting anything other than food are complete idiots. I think I saw Kompressor carrying a TV!

Score: 0

By itanshi

posted Aug 31, 2005 - 2:37 PM

well that may be, but i'm glad for the offer ^^, not evry place is flooded, they'l have to help each other out. some hotspots have computers there allready

Score: 0