Note: See update at the end of this article.

AT&T has just announced a fantastic perk for iPhone owners with AT&T contracts, free WiFi for iPhone customers on the nation’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot network. This opens up more than 17,000 hotspots, including Starbucks, to iPhone users to use for free on their iPhone, laptop or other device.

There are AT&T hotspots at:

• 12 Airports
• 31 Hotels
• 23 Universities
• 18 Convention Centers
• 5 Sports Centers
• 8,000 + Restaurants
• 700 + Bookstores
• 50 + Supermarkets

You can search for the free WiFi hotspots with AT&T’s WiFi locator.

It would be ideal for AT&T to build their WiFi locator into a location-aware iPhone app, so it would be easy for iPhone owners to find the closest free hotspot.

Update: AT&T has yanked the announcement from its site. According to a report at CNet, the page was posted by mistake: “We have not made any announcement regarding free Wi-Fi and iPhone,” according to Wes Warnock, an AT&T spokesman. “The Web page was posted in error and is being removed.”

AT&T just killed any positive buzz it could have gotten from this announcement.

via iPhoneAlley