From today’s New York Times: Starbucks is switching WiFi providers. After a 6-year deal with T-Mobile, the milk-and-coffee merchant will offer WiFi access through AT&T. The arrangement gives AT&T 17,000 WiFi access points throughout the US, vaulting the telco to the number one spot in the country. AT&T has 70,000 WiFi hot spots worldwide.
AT&T has added mobile subscribers through its iPhone deal and other initiatives, while T-Mobile has struggled to keep pace. However, AT&T will allow T-Mobile customers to use the Starbucks hot spots free of charge, through a roaming agreement. This should appease some T-Mobile subscribers who used Starbucks hot spots.
Starbucks card users will receive a free 2 hour WiFi session each day. Additional time on the wireless network starts at US$4 for 2 hours. AT&T broadband subscribers already had free access to AT&T hot spots as of last month.
Starbucks benefits by gaining access to AT&T’s larger mobile subscriber base. Other users will have a new reason to get and use a Starbucks card. Enhanced wireless access means that Starbucks customers might stay longer, and buy more items during their visit.
Chains like Starbucks often use a single national vendor for telecom offerings such as WiFi, to reduce security issues, consolidate reporting, and provide consistent services and branding across locations.
They won’t be buying breakfast sandwiches, though.
Tags: at&t, broadband, mobile, Starbucks, T-Mobile, telecom, WiFi, wireless
3 responses so far ↓
1 billso
// Tuesday, 12 February 2008, 15:39 HST @027
According to Engadget, T-Mobile users will get FIVE years of free roaming at Starbucks after the AT&T switchover. See the T-Mobile press release for the official announcement.
2 billso
// Wednesday, 13 February 2008, 15:18 HST @012
Glenn Fleishman of TidBITS has posted an excellent article that supports my customer lock-in hypothesis.
Fleishman also notes that iPhone users will need WiFi’s speed when downloading movies and TV shows to their phones. GSM, the mobile phone technology that is used by AT&T and the iPhone, is too slow.
Glenn estimates that a 2 hour movie would download in about 9 minutes on a fast WiFi connection, compared to an hour or more with AT&T’s fastest GSM connection.
He also has some nice information about AT&T’s pricing model for WiFi customers.
Glenn claims that the Starbucks sandwich ovens are being removed to accommodate more coffee-making equipment behind each counter.
3 billso
// Saturday, 26 April 2008, 08:17 HST @678
According to Engadget and this press release, the rollout starts 1 May 2008.
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