AT&T Now Providing Wifi Access at Starbucks

[tjcampbell]

Sounds good.

Here in the UK we get free WiFi via The Cloud which has thousands of hot spots. Pretty much every pub in London has it so the iPhone is always fast and free. This is why don't understand the whole rush for 3G.

 

[aristobrat]

I still don't think people are reading this correctly. I doubt it's a gift card they're referring to.

FWIW, the Starbucks card is a gift card.

https://www.starbucks.com/card/

 

[drb6]

Funnily enough, when I was in the 'burbs of Massachusetts, we had more free wi-fi access around than I do being in NYC. There used to be panera, b&n and others where I could just hang out with my laptop for hours.

In the city, thats very rare. I've seen a burger king or mcdonalds here and there that have free wifi but who wants to be that close to bad cholesterol for internet? Not worth it.

Or maybe I just haven't figured out the spots in NYC.

 

[catachip]

Anyone want to bet me $20 that you'll be able to roll Starbucks access into your iPhone bill?

As mentioned in the article, iPhone customers (i.e., AT&T wireless customers) will get the Starbucks access for free, so, probably no a good bet.

 

[bigjohn]

Now if I could only stand drinking coffee

 

[nemaslov]

The best cafe with the best coffee in San Francisco is Ritual Roasters on Valencia Street-not a chain. It is Laptop central but they finally had to cover up their plug outlets since their power bill jumped to almost 4 or 5K per month due to laptops sucking their energy. !!! They don't mind you hanging but bring a spare battery (unless you have that silly Mac Air laptop).

 

[cloudnine]

I don't know about anyone else, but I absolutely refuse to pay for internet access in public. I am currently living in Oklahoma, and even out here, there are tons of places I can go that offer free wireless internet.

Paid internet access is dead in my opinion. Its just too much of a hassle.

While as a consumer, I can totally sympathize with you... it sucks to have to go into a coffee shop with the hopes of getting work done or simply playing around on the internet for a while and getting charged for even an hour of internet access... if you think about it from the shop's point of view, they're there to get business... to make a profit. If everyone gave away free wifi, people would come in and sit there all day, potentially keeping new customers out of the store, who would have also wanted to sit down for a few minutes to check their email... but they're "forced" to try to find a different shop.

I actually just read this article last night (mind you, it's almost a year old), since I was thinking about buying a wireless at&t modem yesterday, but wanted to see if there were any good coffee shops in the area that had free wifi first... it's a great read, and explains the decision of a lot of coffee shops here in the bay area to either not have wifi available at all, or in some cases, to take it away:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/11/MNGKKOCBA645.DTL

I realize that as an american consumer, it's easy to get caught up in the whole "me, me, me" point of view, but you should also take a minute and ask yourself *why* they're charging. You are "in their home", by the way

 

[Eduardo1971]

I don't know about anyone else, but I absolutely refuse to pay for internet access in public. I am currently living in Oklahoma, and even out here, there are tons of places I can go that offer free wireless internet.

Paid internet access is dead in my opinion. Its just too much of a hassle.

So, you also refuse to pay for other utilities?

 

[Orng]

So is there any reason why I couldn't buy a $10 gift card, use that for a login, and then never use the card?

Do they even sell a $10 gift card? You can't even buy anything with that, that's like getting a 50-cent gift card at a normal coffee store.

I'm just kidding, I know that Fourbucks coffee is not more than $10. It's $4.

So take the real value of coffee and coffee-related beverages, add in a reasonable mark-up, and your free WiFi access really costs you $3.50 .

But at least the smiles are free! doesn't make up for the bitter swill they call coffee though

 

[aristobrat]

Paid internet access is dead in my opinion. Its just too much of a hassle.

For people that frequently travel, knowing that they can walk into virtually any Starbucks, FedEx/Kinkos, or Barnes and Nobles and get on the Internet via WiFi is worth paying for.

At least that's what my coworkers that spend a lot of time traveling say.

 

[nemaslov]

In my perfect world, we should only have to pay ONCE for internet use. Whatever company you are hooked up with and subscribe to, you should be able to sign on anywhere. Is this even possible? Otherwise you are paying double triple and so on.

 

[Eduardo1971]

Do people really hang out at Starbucks that long to peruse the Internet?

Get your coffee and go, people. If I'm "hanging" at a coffee shop, it's because I'm there with someone, and I'm socializing with them. Not putt-sing around the web.

Am I missing something here?

You obviously don't live in Los Angeles. It seems like every single television/movie writer does all their 'work' at a coffee shop.

 

[ruckus]

So, you also refuse to pay for other utilities?

No, just internet access in public, as stated.

 

[aristobrat]

In my perfect world, we should only have to pay ONCE for internet use. Whatever company you are hooked up with and subscribe to, you should be able to sign on anywhere. Is this even possible? Otherwise you are paying double triple and so on.

Then sign up for AT&T broadband at home. Then you can use their WiFi services (like the Starbucks one) for free.

 

[GQB]

No.

Starbucks purchase card
https://www.starbucks.com/card/default.asp?cookie_test=1&fav_test=1

It's really just a gift card. A lot of people I know use them to budget their addiction. They'll add $30 to the card at the beginning of the month. When the $30 is gone, no more Bux for them the rest of the month.

OK... I really don't get this.

"Starbucks said Monday it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card two hours of free wireless access per day. After that, it will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session. Monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots worldwide."

Anyone have a simple breakdown of what this means?
So if I want free 2 hrs/day access I just get a prepaid coffee card and maybe/maybe not use it for coffee?
Then it says free access to AT&T broadband subscribers? Why not just get the coffee card?
I'm clearly missing something here.

 

[eastcoastsurfer]

Do people really hang out at Starbucks that long to peruse the Internet?

Get your coffee and go, people. If I'm "hanging" at a coffee shop, it's because I'm there with someone, and I'm socializing with them. Not putt-sing around the web.

Am I missing something here?

Not starbucks, but I use a local coffee shop as my 'office' on days I don't want to work from home. It's quiet, free internet, and coffee on tap In fact there are a few other people I see in there regularly who do the same thing.

You're right about Starbucks though. No way I could spend more than 5 minutes in that place. I don't like the culture, the people who work there bug me and the 'let me see how many words I can have in my coffee order' people bug me too.

 

[nemaslov]

Then sign up for AT&T broadband at home. Then you can use their WiFi services (like the Starbucks one) for free.

I do. Actually I am self employed and pay for ATT broadband at my house AND at my studio, but up until this story, I've had to pay out in the world again, unless it was a free web cafe. So how soon will this take affect?

 

[ruckus]

I realize that as an american consumer, it's easy to get caught up in the whole "me, me, me" point of view, but you should also take a minute and ask yourself *why* they're charging. You are "in their home", by the way

I see your point, but I disagree somewhat. The fact that I have to pay for internet at starbucks means I won't be heading there when I want to go out, get a coffee, and do some work. The local coffee shop, however, sees my business because they offer free internet. As mentioned above, Panera bread also has free internet. McAlisters deli, and tons of other places successfully apply the free internet model and it works very well.

This may be more of a problem in the city and I can understand that; I lived in the center of Boston for awhile and that starbucks was always packed, and a free table was almost never available.

So I guess it is about me. I want what I want. I'm just glad there are other establishments out there that can satisfy my demanding needs

 

[Unspeaked]

FWIW, the Starbucks card is a gift card.

https://www.starbucks.com/card/

OK... I really don't get this.

"Starbucks said Monday it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card two hours of free wireless access per day. After that, it will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session. Monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots worldwide."

Anyone have a simple breakdown of what this means?
So if I want free 2 hrs/day access I just get a prepaid coffee card and maybe/maybe not use it for coffee?
Then it says free access to AT&T broadband subscribers? Why not just get the coffee card?
I'm clearly missing something here.

Exactly.

Why even charge for it if it's something you can get free with a free card?

Either sign up for a couple of free rechargeable gift cards with a zero balance, or if there's a minimum, a $1 balance, and you get 4 free hours of internet.

That sort of defeats the purpose of A) giving it as a bonus to broadband and wireless subscribers and B) charging anything for it in the first place.

 

[aristobrat]

So if I want free 2 hrs/day access I just get a prepaid coffee card and maybe/maybe not use it for coffee?
Then it says free access to AT&T broadband subscribers? Why not just get the coffee card?

AT&T's not required its broadband/WiFi subscribers to do anything like that before at other places it offers its service (McDonald's, Barnes & Noble, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, etc), so my guess is that they're just being consistent with Starbucks.

 

[eastcoastsurfer]

While as a consumer, I can totally sympathize with you... it sucks to have to go into a coffee shop with the hopes of getting work done or simply playing around on the internet for a while and getting charged for even an hour of internet access... if you think about it from the shop's point of view, they're there to get business... to make a profit. If everyone gave away free wifi, people would come in and sit there all day, potentially keeping new customers out of the store, who would have also wanted to sit down for a few minutes to check their email... but they're "forced" to try to find a different shop.

I actually just read this article last night (mind you, it's almost a year old), since I was thinking about buying a wireless at&t modem yesterday, but wanted to see if there were any good coffee shops in the area that had free wifi first... it's a great read, and explains the decision of a lot of coffee shops here in the bay area to either not have wifi available at all, or in some cases, to take it away:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/03/11/MNGKKOCBA645.DTL

I realize that as an american consumer, it's easy to get caught up in the whole "me, me, me" point of view, but you should also take a minute and ask yourself *why* they're charging. You are "in their home", by the way

The article is interesting, but I think it discounts that a lot of the coffee shop business has been driven by people doing more than coming in and grabbing coffee and leaving. In the morning I'm sure there is a lot of churn, but what about all day long business? I think it's likely most coffee shops wifi will move towards the buy a cup get 2 hours of wifi scenario. Which is one that I think works for both the business owner and consumer.

 

[slffl]

Do people really hang out at Starbucks that long to peruse the Internet?

Get your coffee and go, people. If I'm "hanging" at a coffee shop, it's because I'm there with someone, and I'm socializing with them. Not putt-sing around the web.

Am I missing something here?

I'm guessing people like to get out of their office/home and not be shut-ins. Just a guess.

 

[aristobrat]

Why even charge for it if it's something you can get free with a free card?

Because if they *required* people get a Starbucks card for any free wifi, people (especially in this forum) would flip out.

Besides, AT&T's simply adding their existing WiFi service (that they offer at other locations) to Starbucks. If you can buy time at McDonald's, it would be inconsistant to not be able to buy time at a Starbucks for the same service.

 

[edoates]

Starbucks have 7000 stores in the US??????

Is coffee really that fantastic?!

Their coffee is predictable. Whichever one you go to, the coffee, latte, etc. will taste the same. Many other coffee places have better coffee (SBC, Pete's, etc.), but they are not everywhere. And it seems that every time I try a local coffee specialty store, the coffee ranges from pretty good to rancid. Starbucks banks on predictable, though not excellent coffee drinks, clean stores and ubiquity.

Now if they would just offer free WIFI everywhere. I refuse to pay for WiFi.

Eddie O

 

[dgdosen]

Makes sense!

On one hand you have Starbucks - which with TMobile has already invested in the infrastructure to get these places wired.

The investment is already made - and I'm sure wireless access is underused in Starbucks - mostly becuase you have to pay! - That's why I avoid it. Now, if they give away something they've already paid for, the only thing that can come out of it is more people paying more for those fat margined scones, cookies and croisants....

Sure they give up some small amount of revenue from people actually paying five bucks a day to use wifi at Starbucks. I'm sure it's immaterial to the company.

They do have more comfortable furniture in Starbucks. Maybe I'll hang out there more often...