Starbucks Adds Free Wi-Fi Access, Switches to AT&T
Starbucks and AT&T today announced a new agreement under which they'll offer a mix of free and paid Wi-Fi access at Starbucks stores. If you've got a Starbucks Card, you can get up to two hours of Wi-Fi access for free. After that, it's $3.99 for an additional two hours – unless you're an AT&T broadband customer, in which case it's free all the time.
It's bad news, of course, for T-Mobile, which previously had an exclusive deal with Starbucks. "The swap takes 7,000 locations from T-Mobile's hotspot network, leaving it with just 2,000," notes Wired's Charlie Sorrel – though that's not entirely true: through a roaming agreement with AT&T, T-Mobile customers will still be able to get online at Starbucks. The real loss is to T-Mobile the company, which no longer has exclusive access at Starbucks.
"It's an understandable move on Starbucks' part; the coffee chain has a number of deals in place with Apple and its iTunes Store," notes CNET News' Caroline McCarthy. "Apple uses AT&T as the mobile service provider for the iPhone. Rumors of a Starbucks mobile ordering interface for the iPhone have been circulating for months."
The switch to AT&T isn't effective immediately, though – according to the companies, implementation will begin this spring and won't be completed until the end of the year.
More here from Mac Rumors … more here from Gearlog … more here from SlashGear … more here from Wi-Fi Net News … more here from Electronista … more here from AppleInsider … more here from the AP … more here from ZDNet … more here from Computerworld … and the press release is here.
JP said:
Feb 13, 08 at 2:24 pmHow incredibly backward for Starbucks. Charging for wifi access? Is this 1998?