USA - AT&T said customers made 25.4 million connections on its Wi-Fi network in Q3, more than the 20 million connections in 2008

[dallas business journal] AT&T has achieved a new milestone in its wireless segment.

The Dallas-based telecommunications company reported Friday that the company had the most Wi-Fi connections made on its network in a single quarter. AT&T said the new connections record shows more consumers are using smartphones and Wi-Fi enabled devices.

AT&T said customers made 25.4 million connections on its Wi-Fi network in the third quarter, which is more than the 20 million connections made in all of 2008, AT&T said. The connection record brings total AT&T Wi-Fi connections to more than 51 million since the beginning of 2009.

Another telling sign for the telecommunications giant was the fact that the total number of Wi-Fi connections made on smartphones, including the iPhone, surpassed connections made from laptops.

AT&T said 60 percent of all AT&T Wi-Fi connections reaching the network were made from smartphones and other integrated devices. That figure is up from 49 percent in the second quarter of the year.

Telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan is not surprised by the number of new AT&T service connections tied to smartphones and Wi-Fi enabled devices.

"AT&T has made strong gains in Wi-Fi. This has helped them on a number of fronts. Wi-Fi as part of a bundle helps the company offer more value to customers to win and to keep customers. It also helps with the Apple iPhone," Kagan said. "The iPhone is a mixed blessing for AT&T. While it does sell quite a few units and generates lots of Web traffic, it is a bandwidth hog. AT&T allows customers to log on either through the cellphone network or through the Wi-Fi option. Wi-Fi is usually faster than traditional cellphone speeds so customers use it. AT&T likes that because it keeps their traditional cellphone network from being overloaded."

AT&T: Smartphone trumps laptop connections