If you are like me, you’ve always wondered exactly how long Starbucks would get away with charging for Wi-Fi at its 15,000 locations. We found out yesterday that the answer is six years.
Starting this year Starbucks will be ditching T-Mobile as default Wi-Fi provider in half of its retail locations in favor of AT&T. Starbucks is opting to go the route that independent coffee houses have known for some time: if you give away Wi-Fi, customers will come in droves. Free access will be limited to two hours, so I don’t think we’ll see any start-ups forming at your local Starbucks. This is good news nonetheless.
My take: Frankly, I prefer to do my geekery at the small coffeeshops, but the big news here is the extension of location-based services, which Starbucks and Apple initially introduced with the Wi-Fi enabled iTunes Music Store. This allowed iPhone and iPod Touch users to hear and buy music currently playing in Starbucks locations. AT&T and Starbucks plan to “provide customers with location-specific information, more ‘digital experiences,’ and a sense of community online in each store.”
So today we mobile geeks got hit with a double whammy of good news: more free Wi-Fi and more location-based services.
PS. I also wonder if there is a third bit of news hidden in the announcement, that AT&T may leverage its current 3G network to offer the wireless service instead of using fixed lines, which would expand 3G coverage across the country and simultaneously lower access costs.
I thought I read that free access was limited to AT&T DSL customers that logged in with their user/pass. Maybe that’s just for people that want to move past the 2-hour mark.
I thought the same as James. Regardless, I hate coffee.
me too hehe :p really nice article