AT&T, the multinational telecommunications company, is trying to make it easier for Queens customers to access its services, according to Marissa Shorenstein, president of AT&T New York.
The company has made 463 network and capacity upgrades across the borough to ensure high-speed and reliable connections and provides accessible WiFi and phone charging stations throughout Queens.
Patrons who visit Astoria Park, MacDonald Park and the Queens Zoo can have free access to WiFi by simply selecting “attwifi” in their list of networks. Shorenstein also said AT&T’s free solar mobile charging stations, which grew out of a response to Hurricane Sandy, gives visitors at Rockaway Beach and Corona Plaza a free opportunity to charge their phones.
Though free and easy network accessibility is an important initiative, Shorenstein said the company’s commitment to Queens extends to the children living in the borough. AT&T awarded more than $850,000 in multi-year grants to programs in Queens that support traditionally underserved students and motivate them to stay in school.
AT&T granted $300,000 to the Y-Scholars program in Flushing International High School, a dropout prevention and college access program. Sports & Arts in Schools Foundation in Woodside, a program that aims to increase the rate of students who have passed ninth grade to complete high school in four years and go on to college, also received $300,000.
Last summer, AT&T pledged to donate $1 million to the Girls Who Code program, a nonprofit that is working to close the gender gap in technology and engineering.
“We’re doing as much as we can to make sure that Queens residents know that we’re here to support them from a network perspective but also a community perspective,” Shorenstein said.
Starting this summer, AT&T began offering a $40 unlimited text, talk and data plan with no annual contract or credit check through their pre-paid GoPhone initiative “to ensure that everyone in the Queens community has access and is able to connect — and because they believe that by working together in Queens, there’s nothing we can’t do,” according to a spokesperson.
To learn about AT&T phone plans and other initiatives, visit att.com.
