For several years I've been astonished by Starbucks' stubborn refusal to offer free wi-fi service to its customers. I live in a small community in upstate New York and can find a dozen establishments within a 10-mile radius where I can sit down, order a drink and
look at porn get some work done without having to pay some telecom through the nose for a temporary wireless Internet connection.
So I was happy to see
this story over the weekend:
T-Mobile USA has filed a suit against Starbucks, saying that the coffee
company breached its contract by offering free wireless Internet access
in a partnership promotion with AT&T. Starbucks recently began
switching over its Wi-Fi service from its 7-year partnership with
T-Mobile to AT&T; along with the switch in service, AT&T and
Starbucks began offering free wireless access as part of its customer
loyalty program.
On the downside, Starbucks isn't exactly rolling out the free service at warp speed:
Although Starbucks and AT&T hope to switch all 7,000 coffee shops
to AT&T's network by the end of this year, all but two locations
are still on T-Mobile's network.
Suggested slogan: Two down, 6,998 to go!
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