Email Delivery

Receive new posts as email.

Email address

Syndicate this site

RSS | Atom

Contact

About This Site
Contact Us
Privacy Policy

Search


November 2010
Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat
  1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30        

Stories by Category

Basics :: Basics
Casting :: Casting Listen In Podcasts Videocasts
Culture :: Culture Hacking
Deals :: Deals
FAQ :: FAQ
Future :: Future
Hardware :: Hardware Adapters Appliances Chips Consumer Electronics Gaming Home Entertainment Music Photography Video Gadgets Mesh Monitoring and Testing PDAs Phones Smartphones
Industry :: Industry Conferences Financial Free Health Legal Research Vendor analysis
International :: International
Media :: Media Locally cached Streaming
Metro-Scale Networks :: Metro-Scale Networks Community Networking Municipal
Network Types :: Network Types Broadband Wireless Cellular 2.5G and 3G 4G Power Line Satellite
News :: News Mainstream Media
Politics :: Politics Regulation Sock Puppets
Schedules :: Schedules
Security :: Security 802.1X
Site Specific :: Site Specific Administrative Detail April Fool's Blogging Book review Cluelessness Guest Commentary History Humor Self-Promotion Unique Wee-Fi Who's Hot Today?
Software :: Software Open Source
Spectrum :: Spectrum 60 GHz
Standards :: Standards 802.11a 802.11ac 802.11ad 802.11e 802.11g 802.11n 802.20 Bluetooth MIMO UWB WiGig WiMAX ZigBee
Transportation and Lodging :: Transportation and Lodging Air Travel Aquatic Commuting Hotels Rails
Unclassified :: Unclassified
Vertical Markets :: Vertical Markets Academia Enterprise WLAN Switches Home Hot Spot Aggregators Hot Spot Advertising Road Warrior Roaming Libraries Location Medical Public Safety Residential Rural SOHO Small-Medium Sized Business Universities Utilities wISP
Voice :: Voice

Archives

November 2010 | October 2010 | September 2010 | August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010 | March 2010 | February 2010 | January 2010 | December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | June 2009 | May 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008 | November 2008 | October 2008 | September 2008 | August 2008 | July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 | September 2001 | August 2001 | July 2001 | June 2001 | May 2001 | April 2001 |

Recent Entries

In-Flight Wi-Fi and In-Flight Bombs
Can WPA Protect against Firesheep on Same Network?
Southwest Sets In-Flight Wi-Fi at $5
Eye-Fi Adds a View for Web Access
Firesheep Makes Sidejacking Easy
Wi-Fi Direct Certification Starts
Decaf on the Starbucks Digital Network
Google Did Snag Passwords
WiMax and LTE Not Technically 4G by ITU Standards
AT&T Wi-Fi Connections Keep High Growth with Free Service

Site Philosophy

This site operates as an independent editorial operation. Advertising, sponsorships, and other non-editorial materials represent the opinions and messages of their respective origins, and not of the site operator. Part of the FM Tech advertising network.

Copyright

Entire site and all contents except otherwise noted © Copyright 2001-2010 by Glenn Fleishman. Some images ©2006 Jupiterimages Corporation. All rights reserved. Please contact us for reprint rights. Linking is, of course, free and encouraged.

Powered by
Movable Type

« Bluetooth Will Add 802.11 for Bulk Data Transfer | Main | A quick oral analysis »

February 11, 2008

T-Mobile Loses Starbucks; AT&T Becomes Wi-Fi Hotspot Giant

Big news, and I had not an inkling of it, lest you think your loyal correspondent always has the inside track: Starbucks is shredding its deal in place since 2001, originally with MobileStar then T-Mobile, to switch to AT&T as their Wi-Fi provider. That moves 7,000 locations from T-Mobile's ledgers of nearly 9,000 to AT&T's. It turns AT&T from "McDonald's plus," with a relatively small footprint of other locations, to a 17,000-location giant. It also means that 12 million DSL customers and fiber (U-Verse) subscribers and 5 million remote-access business customers now get free access to Starbucks.

AT&T says in their press release that all Starbucks Card holders, which is simply their value-storing swipe card system, will get two hours of free Wi-Fi a day. No purchase is needed: you just need an active card, I confirmed with the company. Walk in, buy a $5 value card, activate it, and you're on for two hours a day from then forward. You can also use multiple devices with a single account, within reason, Starbucks told me. AT&T has also lowered the price for usage from T-Mobile's somewhat egregious $6 per hour or $10 per day to $4 for a two-hour session. The monthly price, like the rest of AT&T's network, is $20 per month for outsiders, which also includes all 70,000 domestic and international locations in their worldwide roaming network.

And--yes, there's an and--all Starbucks employees, 100,000 "partners" (read: wage slaves and management) get free access at all Starbucks locations. Which you have to admit is a nice perq.

AT&T is also part of Boingo's roaming network, which means that their customers suddenly get 7,000 highly desirable domestic roaming locations at no additional cost. (iPass has long had a T-Mobile roaming relationship.) The same is true for other AT&T roaming partners, an AT&T spokesperson confirmed.

T-Mobile HotSpot subscribers will still be able to access Starbucks locations. Starbucks posted a separate press release stating that T-Mobile will be a roaming partner onto the AT&T network through a side deal; no additional cost is involved. There's some leverage here, because T-Mobile does have about 2,000 other locations, including some premium airports like San Francisco. Existing roaming/aggregation deals among Boingo, AT&T, and T-Mobile were partly predicated on the airport market, where millions of subscribers to each network pass through each year.

I should have seen this coming, because it was extremely odd when Apple partnered with Starbucks for the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store service, when their exclusive iPhone partner is AT&T and Starbucks had the T-Mobile deal. This also may pave the way for in-store iTunes Store media servers, which would--as I have written too much about in the last few years--allow someone to use the edge network, the WLAN not the Internet, to pull down a movie in a few minutes instead of an hour or two on a home network.

Wayport just sent out their press notification; the Austin, Texas, firm has been providing managed services for AT&T for the telecom's own network for a few years, but also operates through its own relationship the 8,000+ McDonald's locations. AT&T has been the backhaul provider, as I understand it, for most of the McDonald's deal. It's a bit intertwined. Wayport's hotspot growth has been limited in recent years as the market for where Wi-Fi could go became saturated; this move is exceptionally good for the privately held firm.

The deal goes into place starting market-by-market in the second quarter of 2008, and will be completed this year.

12 Comments

That's great news. I cancelled my T-Mobile account a couple months ago after analyzing how little I used it, it was simply the coincidence. Barnes and Noble uses AT&T and I'm able to login with my home's broadband credentials. I hope this agreement offers the same! Woohoo!

Any idea whether current T-Mobile subscribers' contracts will be dissolved? I would do anything to not have to pay $29.99/mo(!) for the next year(!) if I don't have to, and that $4 per 2 hours sounds downright affordable in comparison.

Up in Western Canada I think it's 7 bucks an hour, $17 for a day and over $30 per month at Starbucks. They get their wifi service through Bell, one of the 4 giant "we'll do what we want" internet/mobile providers. Hence no iPhone in Canada yet.

As an iPhone subscriber, will I get to use Wifi for more than just iTunes at Starbucks with this deal? Or will I have to pay additional?

[Editor's note: That's the $20 per month question! The wireless and consumer divisions at AT&T are reportedly not great at talking to one another. Starbucks and Apple might have to mediate. No real news yet.-gf]

I am curious what happens to the current accounts registered with tmobile through Starbucks. Will those accounts be automatically canceled? Will they be transfered?

[Editor's note: Just found the answer. Starbucks announced that T-Mobile and AT&T have a separate no-fee roaming deal, so T-Mobile subscribers will continue to have access to Starbucks locations. If you want to use AT&T as a provider, you will have to cancel one and start the other, almost certainly.-gf]

According to the Starbucks press release, T-Mobile customers will continue to have access to Starbucks as part of their Hotspot or wireless data plan.

"In recognition of the many T-Mobile customers who enjoy visiting Starbucks, the Company is also announcing that T-Mobile HotSpot customers will be able to continue to access Wi-Fi services at no additional cost, through an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile."

When this is all done, T-Mobile's cost structure should go down dramatically. We will see what will happen to their plans and prices.

I also wonder whether the deal between TMO and ATT allow for access to ATT airports or other locations?

Finally, the big question from a cost of the new Starbucks, AT&T service surrounds the details of the 2 hours free for Starbucks Card holders. Do you only need to buy a card once for access forever or is it only activated in conjunction with a purchase that day?

Where do you see in AT&Ts press release that AT&T DSL subscribers will get free access? I read it and could not find any mention.

[Editor's note: AT&T is very market-speak in their releases. U-Verse is the name of their DSL service; all 12 million U-Verse subscribers (DSL subscribers) get free Wi-Fi service.- gf]

Any chance that UAL/AA will follow Starbucks and switch their Red Carpet/Admiral Clubs from t-Mobile to ATT?

[Editor's note: Doubtful. All separate relationships of long standing. American just switched from charging for T-Mobile (or letting them charge) to providing it free for their club members, but still operated by T-Mobile. -gf]

Do you know how this will affect overseas Starbucks locations? In Europe, t-Mobile has been the provider but it imposes an 18 cents/min surcharge on US-based t-Mobile subscribers.

[Editor's note: No effect there. T-Mobile USA is separately organized from its overseas operations. There's a pan-European T-Mobile hotspot group that has a for-fee roaming arrangement with its US counterpart. -gf]

...or for those of us on the West coast, you could just go to Tully's, which offers free, open WiFi.

I think you're wrong about U-Verse being AT&T's DSL offering.

U-Verse is AT&T's fiber optic offering (a la FiOS)

[Editor's note: Thanks, and corrected. The service is free to nearly all DSL and all fiber (U-Verse) subscribers.--gf]

I've seen a top ten wireless myths which said wifi rated speed is only 10-20% of actual. If that is true, then how can you suggest Wlan in a few mins for a movie?

[Editor's note: Please cite your source. 802.11g is rated at 54 Mbps; I have consistently tested (as have MANY others) speeds at 20+ Mbps. 802.11n's current flavor maxes out at 300 Mbps raw in 5 GHz with wide channels. I was able to push 140 Mbps unidirectionally (Wi-Fi to wired) over this in testing. Others have seen similar numbers depending on parameters.

If it were 10 to 20 percent, Wi-Fi would be an also-ran technology thrown out in 2003.-gf]