I was sitting in a rather boring meeting yesterday afternoon when my iPhone buzzed. I took a peak at the SMS, hoping it was a text message from my daughter. It was not.

Like millions of other iPhone owners from New York to L.A., I got a message stating that," Your Apple iPhone now has free AT&T Wf-Fi access at thousands of hotspots nationwide, including Starbucks..."

"Well, that’s pretty cool and about time," I thought and turned what was left of my waning attention back to the meeting.

If you’ll remember, a while back AT&T said they were going to give iPhone users free Wi-Fi, and did for all of a few days before unceremoniously yanking the service. Now, suddenly we have it back. What gives?

Certainly not AT&T. If that were the case then iPod touch users would be included in this Wi-Fi giveaway too, but they’re not.

I pondered this as I noshed on a Snickers (having skipped lunch I was hoping the candy would live up to its satisfying slogan).

In recent weeks AT&T and Apple have come under fire because the new 3G iPhones don’t always live up to the claim of being twice as fast as the EDGE-surfing first gen iPhone.

The reasons for the slowness are many, but lots of folks believe that AT&T simply had no idea how heavily the new iPhones would tax their new high speed data network, especially in large urban areas.

I live in the Orlando metro-area. Our population fluctuates with the season; snowbirds and students in the Winter, tourists in the Summer. You’d think that I wouldn’t have a problem with my iPhone and a 3G connection, but I do. Sometimes during the day, with five solid bars of signal, it can take two or more minutes (minutes) to load a webpage in 3G. I’ve taken to turning 3G off and relying solely of EDGE. It’s slower, but far more dependable.

The problem affects email, too. I honestly thought there was an issue with my phone until another iPhone user mentioned that he was dealing with the same difficulty.

Wi-Fi, of course, is the way to go -- everything is faster. The problem with Wi-Fi is that hotspots are never conveniently located and not always free. Places that should have Wi-Fi, like the local supermarket and restaurants, don’t. Places that do offer a wireless service, like bookstores and certain coffee shops, want to charge you for it, which is silly.

Wi-Fi is an attractor. If people can connect to the Internet wirelessly while sipping a mocha frappacino, wouldn’t it stand to reason that if they stayed and sipped longer they might buy more mocha frappacinos, and maybe slice of cake to go with it?

Anyway, I was thinking that this old/new AT&T free Wi-Fi offering might cloak an ulterior motive. I’ve been around the block a few times and I know from experience that businesses seldom never give you anything without a reason.

So, what’s in it for AT&T?

It could be a matter of simple math: Subtract a percentage of the iPhone 3G (and now Blackberry 3G) using population at any given moment and put them on Wi-Fi and you have found a way to alleviate, at least to some extent, the 3G network congestion problem which is giving the company a black eye.

Doing so not only helps the congestion in large cities, where the problem seems to occur most and where AT&T hotspots are more common, but it also addresses a promise made, then kept, then broken.

So, why not extend this free Wi-Fi goodness to iPod touch users? This group has got to be feeling like red-headed step children by now: Apple charges them for major OS updates and now AT&T gives them a cold shoulder and a hand in the wallet.

Again, simple math: iPod touch users don’t use 3G and so don’t add to the 3G congestion problem, but they could add the a congestion problem at hotspots. I personally don’t think there’s enough iPod touch users to matter in this regard, but it is a thought. Besides, why should AT&T care about iPod touch users? They don’t add to the bottom line.

Want another reason for opening up Wi-Fi? How about the Apple Factor.

Apple iPhones have not only redefined an industry, but it’s redefined AT&T’s profits as well. So, Apple has a lot of clout with the carrier.

One thing the Cupertino Clan dislikes is when a bad light is shown on an Apple product. Apple is already getting hit with lawsuits and complaints about this and that and it doesn’t help that the company has little control over the quality of service AT&T provides.

To the consumer, it doesn’t matter if email won’t download because of a very busy network. All they know is that it doesn’t work on the iPhone and it did on the Blackberry. The phone is made by Apple, so Apple is to blame.

I can imagine His Steveness calling Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, and saying, "Yo, Randy, wassup with the 3G network? I thought you guys had this. I’m getting complaints and lawsuits, and it ain’t even Apple’s fault. Or maybe it is. Maybe I should have gone to Sprint."

Mr. Stephenson might reply, "Oh come on Steve, it’s not that bad. Things are working and stuff is getting better all the time. Besides, we aren’t the only ones lacking here. What about cut-n-paste? Huh? What about that?"

"Don’t you worry about the iPhone, we got this. You guys really need to fix the network thing, and quick. We got competition breathing down our backs."

"Hmm, I think I got an idea how to take some of the strain off the system... let me get back with ya Steve-o."

It could have happened like that.

So, free hotspot Wi-Fi. For whatever the reason, it’s a good thing. Now, cut-n-paste.

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.