AT&T beefs up WiFi coverage in NYC for Times Square festivities

The biggest party in the country on New Year's Eve has to be in New York's Times Square. AT&T has announced that it is setting up new data capacity in Times Square and in San Francisco. The new capacity is being added to help support devices that use lots of data and to take some of the load off the mobile network in the area.

The new capacity in Times Square will help ease congestion as thousands flock to the festivities to take place this weekend. AT&T calls the new WiFi areas Hot Zones and they overlap to cover large outdoor areas and are designed to use a cluster of access points to provide robust coverage.

Along with new Hot Zones in Times Square, AT&T is also adding new coverage for the busy San Francisco Embarcadero waterfront district. AT&T has planned to set up more Hot Zones as well, particularly in sports stadiums to beef up coverage. The best news for AT&T smartphone and home broadband services is that the zones can be used for free and don't count towards monthly data allotments.