SBC Offers $1.99 Wi-Fi to DSL Users

SBC Communications Inc., which has been bundling its services to appeal to customers, today will begin offering its high-speed Internet access customers unlimited use of its wireless “hot spots” for $1.99 a month.

The combination will allow digital subscriber line customers to tap into SBC’s nationwide network of 3,900 wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, hot spots, which extend as far as 300 feet in each direction with much faster transmission speeds than DSL offers at home. California’s dominant local phone company has 456 Wi-Fi hot spots statewide, mostly at UPS Stores.

Scott Helbing, an SBC vice president for marketing, said the company had long viewed Wi-Fi -- usually available in short-range areas in airports, coffeehouses and bookstores -- as an extension of DSL.

The San Antonio-based company plans to make more than 20,000 hot spots available by the end of 2006, he said.

SBC, the nation’s largest DSL provider, with 4.3 million lines in service, normally charges $19.95 a month for the Wi-Fi service alone.