Well it appears that AT&T's takeover of the Starbucks Wi-Fi Hot Spot service has begun. I had made reference to this in a post titled Wireless Pricing Factors: Leverage and Convenience back in February regarding new mobile service pricing. The big story was not that AT&T was taking over the 7000+ Starbucks Hot Spots, but rather that Internet access was now going to be free (at least for 2 hours per day) for anyone with a Starbucks card that had been used in the past 30 days.
Well it appears that AT&T's takeover of the Starbucks Wi-Fi Hot Spot service has begun. I had made reference to this in a post titled Wireless Pricing Factors: Leverage and Convenience back in February regarding new mobile service pricing. The big story was not that AT&T was taking over the 7000+ Starbucks Hot Spots, but rather that Internet access was now going to be free (at least for 2 hours per day) for anyone with a Starbucks card that had been used in the past 30 days.I got a note from one Alan Weinkrantz who blogs at 3screens.net. It appears he visited his local Starbucks at 5321 Broadway Road in San Antonio, TX, and found an AT&T crew busily installing their access point. From schmoozing with the installers, Alan determined that this was AT&T's first Starbucks conversion in the country.
He was also able to get on line for free as an SBC Global Email customer, but from his description, it was unclear how the "Free for Starbucks Card Holder" deal might work.
It is clear that a new day is dawning.
