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If you're a laptop-toting AT&T internet customer, your trips to Starbucks are about to get cheaper: AT&T is rolling out Wi-Fi access at more than 7,000 Starbucks locations around the U.S. The service, unlike the T-Mobile Wi-Fi currently available in most Starbucks stores, will be free to "qualifying" AT&T broadband customers. "Qualifying" means customers who subscribe to the company's higher-speed residential broadband service, small business broadband packages, and AT&T U-Verse packages.
Customers of AT&T's cellular service, including iPhone-toting, EDGE-using suckers like me, will still have to pony up for full wireless access, though the company is promising "a mix of free and paid connection options." In the San Antonio stores where the rollout begins today, customers can buy a two-hour pass for $4, or order a monthly subscription for $20.
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson offered the following statement, helpfully translated into more intelligible Swedish Chef-ese by the encheferizer.
"Veet zee pooer ooff oooor Vee-Fee netvurk, und thruoogh oooor pertnersheep veet Sterboocks, ve’re-a strengzeeneeng oooor ebeelity tu meet zee needs ooff tudey’s mubeele-a cunsoomer furtooelly unyvhere-a und iferyvhere-a," Stephenson said. "Expundeeng oooor reech ecruss cumpuny-oopereted Sterboocks luceshuns neshunveede-a helps us breedge-a zee gep betveee oooor vured und vureless ooffffereengs und effffurms
ET&T’s cummeetment tu cunnect peuple-a veet zeeur vurlds, iferyvhere-a zeey leefe-a und vurk. Bork bork bork!"
AT&T and Starbucks Begin Nationwide Wi-Fi Rollout (press release)
See also: Starbucks Ditches T-Mobile and Brings in AT&T as Exclusive Wi-Fi Provider
Photo credit: 177/Flickr
