Starbucks Begins “Complimentary” Wi-Fi
June 3rd, 2008 (12:00pm) Jason Harris 9 Comments
As forecast in a previous post, Starbucks has begun their complimentary Wi-Fi service. To get your two free hours of Wi-Fi, you must:
- Create an AT&T Wi-Fi account
- Have a Starbucks card (that can have as little as $5) on it and you must have used your Starbucks card once in the last 30 days.
- And agree to be emailed (spammed) by AT&T up to 4 times a year.
Not a bad deal: get a Starbucks card and an Americano and you can have 2 hours to use their professionally managed and speedy Wi-Fi.
As another option for free Wi-Fi with your morning coffee, check out your local coffee shop and of course Boingo is also an option.
For more information on AT&T’s Wi-Fi Service, see their FAQ.
(Photo credit: Flickr User visualpanic)
9 Comments Post your own comment
Complimentary Wi-Fi at The Cape Cod Farm says: June 3rd, 2008 4:51pm
[...] Starbucks rolls out complimentary Wi-Fi. « Next meeting: June 11 [...]
Jim Wolff says: June 4th, 2008 1:32am
While this may sound like a deal, there are 100s of places to have coffee in the UK which have completely free wifi, without having to jump through any hoops.
If Starbucks can’t monopolize coffee-drinking, they can’t monopolize web access on the move either..
Chris says: June 4th, 2008 1:43am
It’s a lot of hoops to jump through, but it is still likely to be successful. Some people like the Starbucks brand; even if it is more expensive and impractical.
Joel Falconer says: June 4th, 2008 8:27am
Good deal, but only if you’re already a Starbucks customer. Doesn’t seem to offer any incentives to switch from better and cheaper cafes, considering the hoops involved.
Julie says: June 4th, 2008 9:55am
Hmm… sounds like a Microsoft “deal”. Why limit it to 2 hours?
A few problems with this. There are plenty of coffees shops in the US that offer free unlimited Wi-fi to customers, and most of them have much better coffee than Starbucks.
michael says: June 4th, 2008 10:06am
Starbucks is the *only* coffee shop — out of many — in my area that hasn’t had free wifi for years. Now it’s the only one with strings attached.
Jeremiah Staes says: June 4th, 2008 10:59am
Another thing I learned with the new AT&T support is that I have AT&T DSL at home – you can log in for free as long as you want with that login if you have their services.
Grey says: June 4th, 2008 12:51pm
Know if this is valid in the UK? I haven’t seen and ads for this and the Starbucks here use T-Mobile.
Lawrence Salberg says: June 4th, 2008 4:07pm
Pointless. And a sure sign that they are losing ground (no pun intended) to independent coffee houses.
Wi-Fi should *never* cost anything, either in terms of a sale, or some rigorous steps to follow. Hey, quite frankly, their stuff aint’ that good.
Businesses did this forty years ago with restrooms. You had to buy something to use the restroom. They worried and fretted that if they just let people use the restroom for free, there would be a line around the corner. Dumb.
Like most wifi users, I always buy something. Half the time, it’s a full meal and or chef’s salad. I get hungry when I work. Delicious smelling food and drinks nearby does the trick. But to require a sale upfront is dumb. Sometimes, I’ve just come from a lunch meeting and it’s 2:00pm and I don’t want to eat or drink anything quite yet. Maybe in an hour or so I’ll get something to drink – even if it’s just a bottled water. By 5 or 6pm, I’m starved and I get some real food.
I suppose there are a few scoundrels who take advantage of this, although I hardly see what for. If you want to save money, just subscribe to broadband – it’s only $40/month for 8Mb/s here and with gas at $4/gal, it’s far cheaper to stay home – with faster internet, too.
Starbucks will *explode* if they ever offered free wifi. I’d go there at least 2 days a week. I haven’t gone there in six months.