Free internet at Starbucks? Can it be true?
- February 16th 2008
- From the Editor
No. Not actually. Only if you’re one of the ’special people’ will you actually be able to get free internet with your frappuchino(tm).
Starbucks announced earlier this month that in the spring (which is when? I’m guessing April?) they will be offering free wi-fi internet access at their US based stores. This had me excitedly running to the internet to confirm the rumors I’d heard from my friend’s girlfriend’s friend. I love their coffee and currently pay to have the extra $20 tacked onto my cell phone bill with Tmobile every month so that I can have access when I’m there. Which is all too often. I was only to be disappointed. What they were really announcing is that they are switching wi-fi providers from T-mobile to ATT. This will make sense for them as a company, their in-house communication systems are already run by ATT, and it will probably save this billion-dollar company some nice money. Which the stock holders will love. But I’m not a stock holder.
I use T-mobile for my cell phone provider so I get a break on the Wi-fi access at Starbucks ($20 a month instead of $40) which makes it feasible for me to purchase. One of the ‘plusses’ that put me over the top in purchasing T-Mobile for my cell phone was this very fact. In fact, many of the blog posts you read here are posted while at Starbucks. I frequently hop from one shop to another so as to switch my IP address when I’m doing something research-wise that makes Yahoo! think I’m a spam bot. This will all change. I doubt that ATT will allow me to ‘roam’ on their network, at least when I’ve tried it at The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf cafes, which already use the former telegraph company for their wi-fi, it hasn’t worked. So unless I annie up and pay the $$ for their service, I’m stuck. Again. And since I’m in a recently renewed contract with T-mobile, I’m not about to pay to switch networks again. Besides, I like their service.
But, you say, I thought they said the internet will be free??? Yes, oh, didn’t I mention? It’s only free if you have the Starbucks Duetto credit card. Which me and my 550 credit score don’t qualify for. I’m not too hurt though, even if I did have their card I would only get 2 free hours a day. Without a card, everyone has to pay. Suck.
So I think I’m going to try and kick the Starbucks habit. We live down the street from a very nice internet cafe which, while their wireless connection is slow, they have a lovely atmosphere. Go independent coffee shops. I’m officially converted back again.
Thanks to katmere for the lovely photo.
I’ll be your cheerleader for this one. You definitely need to switch to independent coffee shops. I’m biased, because I hate Starbucks. I’m not a coffee drinker, but I hate the way their generic stores come in and take over and end up causing all the interesting local shops to close. When I lived in Greece, Starbucks was pretty much nonexistent until right before the Olympics when they started sprouting up everywhere. Greece has an awesome coffeehouse culture, and it pained me to think of all the tourists coming for the Olympics and missing out on such an important part of Greek culture because it was easier for them to get their tall mocha whatever at Starbucks. Ugh!
Yeah, most indie coffee shops have free wireless.
Check out this locator: http://www.indiecoffeeshops.com/