Starbucks serves up Wi-Fi

By SUSAN RUSH
From CED Broadband Direct, August 21, 2002

Starbucks has become a way of life for some people. Beginning today, the coffee shop operator is serving up more than lattes in many of its US locations with the introduction of high-speed wireless services.

To enable customers to check e-mail, surf the Web, watch streaming video and download multi-media presentations, Starbucks has surrounded 1,200 of its US cafes with a Wi-Fi-based local area network. T-Mobile International, a Deutsche Telekom wireless subsidiary, is powering the network.

The T-Mobile HotSpot service will be offered to Starbucks customers with wireless-ready notebooks and Pocket PCs for free on a 24-hour trial. For those that get hooked, T-Mobile offers a variety of service plans, from pay-as-you-go for as little as $2.99 to unlimited national plans for $49.99 a month.

Before customers saunter into a Wi-Fi-powered Starbucks, though they need to make sure their notebook or Pocket PC is configured properly. In conjunction with the Starbucks announcement, HP has released the Wireless Connection Manager. The free, downloadable software is designed to enable users to configure their wireless-enabled devices to automatically sense and connect to available wireless networks. The software can be downloaded at www.starbucks.com/hotspot.

The marriage between Starbucks and Wi-Fi could be the partnership the high-speed wireless standard has been seeking. The high-speed wireless standard has been dubbed by many as the answer to broadband's last-mile problems, but has been slow to get off the ground.

The plan is to extend the offering to 800 more locations in the United States by the end of the year. Starbucks also is offering the service in select cafes in London and Berlin.