AT&T, Starbucks Offer Free WiFi (Again)

by Eric March on June 3, 2008 at 11:35 am

After offering, and then yanking the whole free WiFi thing, AT&T and Starbucks have finally gotten their ducks in a row and are now once again offering free WiFi service — for real this time. As you might expect, there’s a slight change to the way it works.

Aside from the obvious requisite of being a current AT&T subscriber, Starbucks wants a piece of that membership action too, and are additionally requiring that you be a card-carrying Starbucks aficionado — literally. You’ll need to buy a Starbucks debit card before you can sign in. Of course, if you’re already a Starbucks customer, you probably won’t mind very much and may already have your own card. In fact, if you already have a card, you’re all ready to go — provided you’ve used or reloaded your card within in the last 30 days. Oh — and one other thing. You have to agree to let AT&T spam you up to 4 times a year. But it’s not like 4 E-Mails a year will be noticeable through the 40 spams a day you normally get.

Once the prerequisites are met, you just need to sign up and in with your laptop or iPhone and you’ll be good for a single free WiFi session lasting up to two hours, after which I presume the router will unceremoniously dump your IP lease. I don’t know whether you can sign in again afterwards or whether you’re limited to two hours a day, but if you’re spending that much time at Starbucks, you’re either a barista or a future 12-stepper.

(via Engadget)

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