AT&T said today that it will start providing WiFi to more than 7,000 company-owned Starbucks in the U.S. ditching the long-standing partnership Starbucks had with T-Mobile USA. The two companies will offer both free and paid services. Beginning this spring, Starbucks Card holders can use two hours of free Wi-Fi service a day at Starbucks, and if you are one of AT&T’s 12 million broadband or AT&T U-verse customers, you’ll have unlimited access. AT&T said it already offers 17,000 U.S. hot spots in the U.S. and more than 70,000 globally. Release.
Different plans: In addition to free access, customers will be able to purchase tiered access to the AT&T Wi-Fi network at Starbucks: two hours for “just” $3.99; monthly subscription for $19.99 includes access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots in 89 countries. Starbucks “partners” — ie employees — will get free access.
Upgrade: AT&T is upgrading Starbucks’ network with more bandwidth and redundancy.
Availability: The market-by-market rollout starts this spring and is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Common denominator: Starbucks and AT&T have Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) in common. AT&T, of course, partners with Apple on the iPhone while Starbucks and Apple launched an iTunes partnership late last year. Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, singled out iTunes in his comments about the deal allowing Starbucks “to expand and enhance the range of digital entertainment experiences for our customers as well as our partners, including the continued rollout of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store…”
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As one of the Slowskis followers, I am overjoyed at this move by AT&T;.
As a regular Starbucks customer, I am NOT overjoyed by this. I like nothing about AT&T;. I am a T-Mobile customer and doubt very seriously I will be using AT&T;'s services at Starbucks.
Well, as someone who sometimes PAYS for wifi at starbucks, I'm glad to see they picked a company with a superior product, and at a cheaper price for the customer.
It also makes since for Starbucks to find someone who can give perks to the Starbucks cardholders, and it sounds like the base of users who will have free access is larger than *stingy* T-Mobile… and that will bring more customers into the store.