Visit Starbucks Wi-Fi Hotspots With iPhone, Get Free Connection

Posted on May 3, 2008
Filed Under iPhone General

iPhone users who need a speedy over the EDGE connection pay attention to functional and handy Wi-Fi system. The only problem is lacking of various hotspots to use it on.

Visit Starbucks Wi Fi Hotspots With iPhone, Get Free Connection At the 2008 AT&T Annual Meeting of Stockholders, Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer, announced that the deployment of AT&T Wi-Fi service at Starbucks locations takes place. Also, AT&T Wi-Fi internet customers will have complimentary Wi-Fi access at a number of 7,000 Starbucks locations across the USA. For the great army of AT&T customers, that means speedy and free connection.

Earlier this year Starbucks and AT&T had a deal that the coffee retailer’s T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspots will be switched to the AT&T network. So iPhone users can reap the benefits of it.

Interestingly that the newly launched AT&T hotspots are providing absolutely free Wi-Fi access to all visitors with iPhones (surely you should have a valid iPhone number given by the official provider). But that’s only in theory.

Many Starbucks are still using T-Mobile’s service for providing Wi-Fi access. Some Starbucks has AT&T hotspot available, but with no free Wi-Fi service to iPhones. Some have Wi-Fi networks provided with T-Mobile with AT&T log name. Evidently AT&T’s intentions to roll out the service started this spring. The company’s initial press release claimed to finish integration in coffee chain’s hotspots by the end of the year.

The strategy suggests that the Wi-Fi service for customers of AT&T and U-verse Internet customers will be for free, with the extension of Wi-Fi service for wireless customers at Starbucks. AT&T’s fees for other users are $19.99 per month or $3.99 for a two hour block.

In the United Kingdom the situation is quite different. The mobile phone provider O2 is offering free access to iPhone owners at hotspots of The Cloud network (about 7,500 units throughout Europe). To add a contrast, AT&T boasts 70,000 hotspots internationally.