ATT and Starbucks to offer "free" wifi

I read this in the NY Times this morning :>)
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/12/technology/12sbux.html?_r=1&ref=business&oref= slogin
SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks and AT&T said Monday that they would start offering a mix of free and paid wireless Internet service in most of Starbucks’s American shops, beginning this spring.
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Related
Bits: Cheaper Wi-Fi Access at Starbucks (February 11, 2008)
The move ends a six-year partnership with T-Mobile, which did not include free Wi-Fi and charged higher fees than AT&T will.
Starbucks said it would give customers who use a Starbucks card two hours of free wireless access a day. An additional two-hour session will cost $3.99; monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T’s 70,000 hot spots worldwide.
Nearly all of AT&T’s broadband Internet customers, about 12 million people, will automatically have unlimited free Wi-Fi access at Starbucks, the companies said. The deal will increase the number of AT&T hot spots in the United States to 17,000.
Current T-Mobile HotSpot customers — who pay $6 for an hourlong session, $9.99 for a day pass and $39.99 a month for unlimited access — will get Wi-Fi access at no extra charge through an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile.
Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks’s chief technology officer, would not disclose how many customers used the T-Mobile service in Starbucks stores, but said he expected many more would use the new service. Starbucks will start introducing it this spring and aims to have it available in its more than 7,000 company-operated domestic stores by the end of the year.
Robert Toomey, an analyst with E. K. Riley Investments, said it was smart for Starbucks to link the new Wi-Fi service to its purchase card, which tens of millions of people use to buy their mochas and lattes, he said.
“I think it’s a double positive for both product sales and traffic,” Mr. Toomey said.

I heard that as a rumor, but who knows.
I'm sure you'll have more time than us freeloaders

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