AT&T to take over Starbucks Wi-Fi service

More than five years after launching its wireless LAN service with T-Mobile, Starbucks announced Monday it is shifting responsibility for its in-store Wi-Fi networks over to AT&T.

The agreement between the companies says that AT&T will deliver wireless broadband connectivity to 7,000 Starbucks stores nationwide, and also guarantees that all 12 million AT&T broadband and U-Verse Internet subscribers will be able to access Wi-Fi hotspots in Starbucks for free. Additionally, all Starbucks Card holders will be granted two free hours of Wi-Fi per day, and customers who had been subscribers of the T-Mobile HotSpot service will be able to continue to access Starbucks Wi-Fi services at no additional cost, the companies say.

"Our new relationship with AT&T gives us the opportunity to expand and enhance the range of digital entertainment experiences for our customers as well as our partners, including the continued rollout of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store at Starbucks," says Ken Lombard, Starbucks Entertainment president.

Starbucks customers who don't subscribe to AT&T or the T-Mobile HotSpot service will be able to purchase in-store Wi-Fi access on a tiered basis, Starbucks says. Customers who don't have Starbucks Cards will be to pay $3.99 for a two-hour session, while monthly membership rates will be priced at $19.99 per month and will give users access to AT&T's 70,000 Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide.

These plans are already less expensive than the initial plans offered by Starbucks and T-Mobile in 2002, which offered a $2.55 pay-as-you-go service, a $29.99 monthly subscription for unlimited local use and a monthly $49.99 subscription for unlimited national use in the United States.

AT&T, which currently has 17,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in the United States and which recently announced a major expansion of its 3G network, says its deal with Starbucks will increase its wireless footprint by more than 70%.

The AT&T agreement marks the second time in recent months that Starbucks has worked to shake up its Wi-Fi services. Last October, the company announced that it had chosen content-delivery network service provider Akamai to provide hundreds of Starbucks stores with content-delivery servers to help speed up their Wi-Fi iTunes Music Stores. AT&T and Starbucks say the new Wi-Fi services will start being implemented in stores this coming spring, with the goal of wrapping up the installation in all the stores by year-end.