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AT&T Now Providing Wifi Access at Starbucks

Unspeaked said:
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.
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Reading comprehension is key
'it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card'

The key words are 'customers' and 'use'. If you just load a buck onto a gift card, neither words apply. If you use the gift card to purchase a drink, you get two free hours. Just having the card doesn't get you anything but a thicker wallet :)
 
two sides

ruckus said:
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.
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Paying for public internet access can be a hassle (the sign on process, etc.), but many places that offer 'free' internet access do so as a way to get people in and hopefully make other purchases. Now, many ask that people purchase a certain amount of food and beverage because some people who frown upon paying for internet service at a coffee shop will go in and hog a table for hours, feeling that there is no problem because they bought a $1 cup of coffee.

Remember that many places offering free internet access are independently owned and let's be fair with our purchases when using them for internet access. Most don't have deals with AT&T, T-Mobile or any other telecom company.
 
There’s a LOT of confusion in this thread about cards and access time and so forth.
I think it’s just NOT clear enough from the little info that was given, and so we should probably wait until there’s more concise details.

Regardless, I spend WAAAAAY too much time in Starbucks feeding my soy chai addiction, that ANY plan to bring wireless to The ‘Bucks will be beneficial to me and my iPhone. Obviously I’d love to have it free, but even if I have to pay a small monthly fee (as long as it’s not what T-Mobile was charging), I wouldn’t mind. It would totally be worth it.

As for Starbucks itself, there seems to be either LOVERS or HATERS out there – with very few in-between. Just be aware that not all Starbucks are the same (as much as they might want you to believe that they are). Even here in NYC, there are varying qualities to each of the Starbucks. And like someone else here said, Starbucks is like air here in NYC. (And for the person who said “must be from New York” – you’ve not only got the wrong impression of NYers, but we also love our “’Bucks” way too much to have problems with it).

The one near my work in midtown, for example, is always crazy busy – with so many people going in and out at all times. The staff there is moderately friendly-ish, but their interaction is very curt – they want you in and out of there as soon as possible. There are tables and seats, but no one ever stays that long.

The Starbucks near my home is another story, however. People end up staying there for AGES. I’ve seen people spend most of their day in there, either working, surfing the net on their laptops, or chatting with buddies. The staff is SUPER-friendly there, and the atmosphere is much more laid-back.

So while you might hate the Starbucks you frequent, it doesn’t necessarily mean every Starbucks is like that. Heck, not even the DRINKS are the same at every one. While they are more consistent than the service or atmosphere, they also vary wildly depending on which barrista is making them. I have my favorite barristas who do certain drinks well, and I’ll sometimes change my drink depending on who’s making them.
 
cloudnine said:
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
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Presumably, shops can work up a scheme where you get 1 hr WiFi with every purchase or something like that. The password could be printed on the receipt and the system could be knowledgeable of the time that the code was printed so it would have to be redeemed with 15 minutes of printing. This would keep the dumpster divers away.
 
pacohaas said:
What's to stop me from sharing my AT&T login info with all my friends who go to starbucks so they can have free Wifi while they're getting coffee?
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T-Mobile prevents this by only allowing your account to be used from one computer at a time.

If another computer tried to logon to their HotSpot using your account, and there's already another computer logged in using your account, the second computer can't logon.
 
Westside guy said:
So what's a "Starbucks purchase card"? And if you have to buy it, how is this "free wireless"? :confused:
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Yeah, and people are also forgetting this is only in the USA, and it's pretty backwards compared to other countries WiFi access.

In my neighborhood in Canada, Starbucks still has no WiFi at all and I don't know any that do. On the other hand, there are five or six hippie-dippie coffee shops within walking distance, that have completely free, open wireless, no password no advertising, no web log-in etc. Needless to say these places are packed with laptop toting young folks whereas Starbucks is virtually empty half the time.

Starbucks in my neighborhood is the express venue for old farts who like to smoke their ciggies, and secretaries trying to hook whatever passes by in a suit. All the cool potential iPhone customers are at the other places.

No way I would pay a dime, not even sign up for a coffee card just to get wireless at Starbucks.
 
cloudnine said:
Definitely! I totally agree with that... not only in logic, but in ethic. Whenever I go into a coffee shop for their wifi, I always buy a cup of coffee first (obviously), but I also make sure to buy another cup or a snack or something every, say, hour or so. I think it basically comes down to common courtesy, something that a lot of people don't have, unfortunately. I think it's sad that people feel as though they're "entitled" to walk into any establishment, leech off their wifi, and not buy a thing. That's not what a shop is for, coffee or otherwise.
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I think you are right about it being common courtesy, but the solution to these problems are also as old as the hills. All a coffee shop has to do is kick out the freeloaders that don't buy things. It's not really a problem unless you are in a tiny coffee shop i a downtown core area anyway. Also this is only a problem at the moment. As wifi becomes more and more ubiquitous, this too will vanish as an "issue" at all.
 
Stampyhead said:
Yeah, totally. T-mobile's prices are not competitive. They charge $6.00 for an hour, whereas at an AT&T hotspot I paid $4.50 for two hours.

EDIT: Looks like now it's $3.99 for two hours. Even better.
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Nothing beats free. AT&T can suck it. (as in my free router and the plethora of free hotspots around the Baltimore City populated/college/university areas) There is no way I am going to pay my cell company for unlimited broadband access, then pay T-Mobile or AT&T even more money just to access the wireless from a Starbucks after paying $7 for my small cup of burnt coffee.

I can just go to my local college, university, HBCU to get free wifi and good inexpensive coffee.

p.s. Christmas blend is a great cup of joe though... so I would go to starbucks for that.
 
ProstheticHead said:
I know this is a step in the right direction for Starbucks, however, it is still not enough. Here in the Pacific Northwest, we've got free wifi in every coffee shop you stop into, no strings attached. No hourly fees, no subscriptions, just ask for the password at the counter and you're online. Until Starbucks quits beating around the bush and just offers free wifi with no conditions, they're not going to see that great of an improvement in customer flow.
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Well, it's not just the Pacific Northwest that's full of coffee shops offering free wifi, but almost anywhere I've been in the US, the free wifi is there only to appease the customer who've come in because the Starbucks next door has run out of seats!



superfula said:
Reading comprehension is key
'it will give customers that use its Starbucks purchase card'

The key words are 'customers' and 'use'. If you just load a buck onto a gift card, neither words apply. If you use the gift card to purchase a drink, you get two free hours. Just having the card doesn't get you anything but a thicker wallet :)
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That's a good point, but I think a lot of this will be tied into how they choose to restrict access.



Rojo said:
There’s a LOT of confusion in this thread about cards and access time and so forth.
I think it’s just NOT clear enough from the little info that was given, and so we should probably wait until there’s more concise details.
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Yes, this.



aristobrat said:
T-Mobile prevents this by only allowing your account to be used from one computer at a time.

If another computer tried to logon to their HotSpot using your account, and there's already another computer logged in using your account, the second computer can't logon.
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As the person you're replying to stated, this isn't like a T-Mobile hotspot account that's bought on an individual basis, entire families use AT&T broadband accounts, so it can't be a 1-login limit...
 
Unspeaked said:
As the person you're replying to stated, this isn't like a T-Mobile hotspot account that's bought on an individual basis, entire families use AT&T broadband accounts, so it can't be a 1-login limit...
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With AT&T broadbad, you have a main account that is the administrator for the connection. That's the one by which the DSL router logs on. It's possible, but foolish IMO, for a family to use that one account for all their email, so they likely have multiple sub-accounts created. I have AT&T DSL but I honestly cannot remember if I use my main admin account to access the wifi connection, or if one of my sub-accounts works. I'll have to test that next opportunity I get.

If a sub-account works, you can indeed create these for your friends and share them, if you trust them to not send emails or browse websites that'll get you a visit from the secret service. :)
 
Unspeaked said:
Are you sure about this? Because it doesn't read that way to me...
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Yes, currently at starbucks Tmobile hotspots you have to pay per block of time for Wifi even with a purchase. That's unlike nearly all the other Coffee houses in all of the areas I've lived in the last few years (Hollywood, Pasadena, Pittsburgh, Las Vegas, Boise, Coeur d' alene ID). They offer free Wifi for customers.. but in most cases it's like an honor system as they don't password the Wifi and then give out passes with purchases receipts, although some do exactly that..
 
Am I missing something here? YES you are.

joemama said:
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?
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1) "Get your coffee and go people" Ever noticed all the tables at Starbucks? Or the ceramic coffee mugs?

2) Have you been in college in the last 20 years? There are starbucks within a 1/2 mile from just about every school campus in the country.
 
I can't see why they don't have free wireless for anybody, especially based on what they charge for a cup of coffee. I go to a competitor here, Jittery Joe's, who has free access.
 
I think you will get 2 free hours per visit. Also, T-Mobile isn't going away. They just won't be the exclusive provider.
 
MazingerZ said:
I think you will get 2 free hours per visit. Also, T-Mobile isn't going away. They just won't be the exclusive provider.
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So, I've seen this online everywhere and still don't quite follow how it's going to work with "Starbucks Card Holders". I get that you can use any pre-paid card to get 2 hours each day, but can you reuse the same card to get 2 hours everyday FOREVER? i.e. if I go out to Starbucks tomorrow and buy a gift card for whatever amount, can I keep that card on me to use everyday to get 2 hours? What if I use up the amount or part of it? From what I'm reading most people translate the news that if they have a prepaid card with money on it they can use it forever to get 2 hours a day. I hope it's true.

I know, this is a Mac forum and not a Starbucks or ATT forum, but I'm hoping someone here has read something else somewhere else and/or knows something more than me.
 
Those of us with MBA's and iPhones are getting some great stuff!
Can't wait till we get this with our iPhone plans which we can share with our MBA's

I think the reason why there's not free wifi in places like Starbucks. Some people will sit in there for hours and buy coffee and foods all day long because they blog for a living or what not. Helps keep a good wifi connection which in turn keeps the customers.
 
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