Your editor has been trying to sort these story out for a couple of days: T-Mobile's hotzone powered by Comcast broadband: The problem with a story like this is that it's been given enormous play because it's a major city and a large area. But it's planned to be a paid location after the first six months, and it's not particularly interesting as a "partnership," because Comcast's role is mostly marketing. Sure, they're bringing in bandwidth, but any Internet provider would do. Likewise, T-Mobile has no other outdoor hotzones that I'm aware of, and it's unclear what the point is of this one: a trial balloon?
The press release and coverage cites the fact that Comcast customers have access to T-Mobile's hotspot service. Sure, and so do I: the rate, as far as I can tell, is the same. Again, marketing. I thought about not covering this at all, but it's worth explicating the event.
Meanwhile, in cities around the country, hotzones like NewburyOpen.net in Boston and Battery Park in Manhattan are sprouting that are commercially supported free locations designed to be free indefinitely and focusing on areas with high appropriate traffic.