Is a Starbucks-branded wi-fi network coming soon?

Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz says the company could "work with Internet and entertainment companies to re-create content on a proprietary network." He says that "digital fill-up at Starbucks" is "not a question of if, but when." Customers could go to Starbucks and, using their wireless connection, download digital videos and music from a Starbucks-operated site. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer)

Comments

[Coffee Chaos Fan]

That will be great if the drop TMobile and just start offering *free* wifi to their customers.

dl

[Benjy]

Yeah, wishful thinking. They will probably drop tmobile and create their own and charge so they can have higher profits. Or create their own and still keep tmobile.

[QC Latte]

Chaos:
Ain't no such thing as free ;-)
Someone pays for it, and I'm sure it won't be the business. A shop with "free" wireless is making up the cost somewhere else...
...like in cost of goods or price to consumer.

If you go into most Panera bread, look for power outlets. You will not see any. The reason for this is so customers cannot plug in their laptops and freeload all day from the wireless. They can only stay as long as their battery lasts if they are there just to be on the free internet.

[CuteBarista!]

so i am at a starbucks right now, on the internet (i pay for the T mobile), and i look around me: i would say about one third of the seats are occupied with people on laptops. can you imagine what would happen if every starbucks gave free wireless internet? every seat, every day, every hour, would be occupied with people on their laptops. all the time. and most of them probably not buying anything while they sit for hours surfing myspace.

THAT is why starbucks doesn't have free wireless. it just doesn't make business sense.

[David Andrzejak]

Just be careful in Starbucks or any place that has any type of wireless service. Free or paid, it doesnt matter. Ive read about hackers sitting between you and the wifi antenna and are able to pull your info that you are passing back and forth between your laptop and the router. Scary, but its not as hard as it seems. In eastern Europe Ive seen people actively trying to hack wifi connections so if its happening there, Im sure it happens here too. Just be careful! Theres a backdoor on every system.

Look at XP... researchers discovered a backdoor to access someones system... and now another company reported a second backdoor belonging to...you guessed it the NSA (thanks Bush), and the lastest thing Ive read is someone found a 3rd backdoor and no one knows who designed it and for what reasons. I wish Microsoft would come clean.

[anonymous]

Wifi doesn't cost a coffee shop as much as you would think. Just upfront equipment cost and a DSL line.

The increase in customers who prefer free over pay covers the cost easily.

There is no "making up the cost somewhere else".

[Staci Kramer]

Actually, every Panera or St. Louis Bread Company (as it's still known here) I've spent time in has outlets, just not a lot of them. They're usually near booths and sometimes in additional locations. Also, most of the places where I spend time with free or paid WiFi have a mix of customers using laptops: some who stay for a long time as do people who are studying, reading or, in some cases, having serial business meetings while some drop in, eat or drink, and move along pretty quickly.

[QC Latte]

It's that "cost of a DSL line" that can be the problem. In many markets, the line provider separates out business and residential, then ups the price dramatically. In this market, for instance, the cost of a high speed line (cable or DSL) is more than 4 times as much for a business as it is at home. That is nearly $200 a month.

Even if we lower that a bit to compensate for cheaper regions and use a figure of $100/month, that is $500,000 a month to provide access, and a staggering $6,000,000 a year for all 5,000 stores to provide "free" access. I would definitely say that impacts the bottom line and would result in a price adjustment to the customer.

Why can't a coffee company focus on coffee and let the folks that want a convenience like WiFi pay for the service?

[sbuxmanager]

The whole t-mobile/sbux thing is win-win for both companies. t-moblie pays for and installs the router and runs the service, while sbux gets people coming in to the stores to use it (while presumably getting a latte and a muffin). Meanwhile, t-mobile cleans up charging 6 bucks a day or 30 bucks a month for the service.

What sbux should provide is free access to their store partners. I bring my laptop to work to write reviews and corrective actions. Sometimes my D.M. will send me a file on my personal e-mail (because we can't download attachments on the store computer)which he'll ask me to distribute to the rest of the district. I don't mind doing that, but I should at least not have to pay the 30 bucks a month to do it. Maybe if we got our own network, the company could provide that to it's store partners.

[QC Latte]

Hey, SBUXMANAGER: check your perkscard benefits. Not free, but $14.99/month with a year's commitment is better than what you are paying. For that matter, $19.99/ month without a contract is better than what you are paying.

[sbuxmanager]

That's good advice which I might take. I still don't think that I should have to pay at all just for internet at work.

[Bruce]

ItT-mobile hot spotis free for their phone customers on the weekends now. I don't understand why someone would want to pay 30$ a month for Wi-fi when there are a plethora of other cafes and places that offer it for free. Though I do wonder how many all-day lingering free-loaders would materialize if Starbucks changed over to free wi-fi. It could potentially negatively impact the stores sales as regulars might feel too crowded and flee from the onslaught of laptop zombies.

[John Molina]

SBUX stores in college towns have it BAD when it comes to people sitting around on their laptops as it is. They buy one thing and sit by themselves at a two-person table for hours and hours when other paying customers could be sitting down enjoying their lattes.

Citywide wireless internet is becoming more and more prominent so it's only a matter of time before free wireless access is made readily available to all, if at very least those in larger cities.

T-Mobile's wireless internet service is very secure as well, something you'll most likely not find at another coffee shop. It's mostly business intended for those doing business.

[Newbiebarista]

Our starbucks offers free wifi, you just have to ask a barista for the username and password. Is it like this at other stores?

[John Molina]

Noo ... is the user/pass based on your store number or something? I am curious about this free wifi.

"Why can't a coffee company focus on coffee and let the folks that want a convenience like WiFi pay for the service?"

that's pretty ironic if referring to starbucks... which has now expanded into music and movies, and looks like will soon be expanding to books.... starbucks being about coffee is only a tiny percentage- even if you just look at their menu or bean sales. starbucks is about a coffee image, but not about actual coffee

[Newbiebarista]

John, no, the user name and password for our wireless are both "Videotron" (the name of the internet provider out here) You really only have to ask the barista the first time, as it never changes. I remember my boss saying that other Starbucks in our city charge for their wifi, but I wasn't sure about other cities.

[Diane]

Why doesn't SBUX just do what Caribou coffee does...give one free hour of wi-fi, and if you want more time you just have to buy more stuff?

[barista_keri]

or you can just steal it from someone...

[RjD]

The lack of free WiFi and SBUX is the one thing that really ticks me off. So long as you're a paying customer access should be free. I'd probably hang around longer (and buy more) if I could have free WiFi I'm certainly not going to stay and read a paper that's been mauled to G*d knows who.

[drew]

panera bread has plenty of outlets. u can stay all day and use wifi no problem.

[Arkashic Recon]

People in retail know that getting a customer in the door is the most expensive, challenging, important part of running a successful business. I know companies that would kill for a magic bullet like FREE wifi access. Any study has shown people never just sit in a coffee shop--eventually, over time, they pay. It my be coffee, a cd, a crumpet or they may meet a friend there and make them pay for the darn crumpet.
It is truly a rare anomaly that a company the size of Starbucks would withhold one of the greatest customer count increasers in coffee shop history from its marketing arsenal. There are so many ways this free wifi could be juiced. How about a free wifi pass with a purchase...duh.
Let's see 3.00 latte 3x a week = 36.00 month and don't forget the occasional crumpet. You see it is so strange to see a company gut themselves so openly. Would you like some new clear coke with your t mobile wifi? Hey, have you noticed McD's coffee tastes better w/ free wifi?

[Cory Letain]

I just came from Starbucks and I bought a Cafe Mocha and a carrot cake. That came to almost 9 dollars, fine. I sat down used there wi-fi service and it said I needed to pay for the service. You have got to be kidding me. i left my cake and coffee untouched on the table and went across the street to a locol cafe and used there service for free. other than the 9 $ i wasted, I guess starbucks doesn't want any more money from me. that fine with me, untill they get free wi-fi going they I will never go there ever again. This just isn't any need to with all the free wi-fi going around.

[David Bailey]

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