First Starbucks switching over to AT&T WiFi

Starbucks said it would transition to AT&T-provided WiFi sometime this spring, and it looks like T-Mobile's getting the boot right on schedule. The first Starbucks to switch over is just 4.2 miles away from AT&T corporate headquarters in San Antonio, at 5321 South Broadway Road, and the rest of the country should come on market-by-market. Anyone else seen any activity? T-Mobile customers still getting access, as promised? Let us know in comments!

[chrisaroz @ Apr 15th 2008 7:36PM]

My Starbucks is still T-Mobile, but there's a link for AT&T people to log in for free.

[JAmerican @ Apr 15th 2008 9:57PM]

Coffee sucks because Caffeine is a drug! Try drinking coffee without it. Pretty terrible ain't it.

Just being a coffee troll. Low Ranked only describes how the quality of coffee without caffeine.

[teslasnp @ Apr 15th 2008 11:36PM]

"only describes how the quality of coffee without caffeine"

caffeine you need. Or grammar lesson.

[JAmerican @ Apr 16th 2008 12:06AM]

Ok I forgot "is", which I noticed afterwards. You shouldn't try to lecture me when you start a sentence with a conjunction. Great work there buddy :).

[kittenparade @ Apr 16th 2008 11:12AM]

And you shouldn't lecture us about caffeine. Obviously coffee isn't too bad without caffeine, otherwise there would be no decaf option.

[JAmerican @ Apr 16th 2008 4:07AM]

I wonder what the ratio of coffees that is decaf and caffeinated. Not saying people can't take the taste, I am saying most can't. Its pretty obvious when most coffees are caffeinated.

[Adrian Williams @ Apr 15th 2008 7:38PM]

Good now I can use my lappy for free at Smugbucks and CrapDonalds

[T-Bone @ Apr 15th 2008 10:46PM]

With that kind of attitude, I'd say you aren't any better than the people you are putting down.

[JAmerican @ Apr 15th 2008 11:20PM]

Funniest comment yet :)

[Greyfox @ Apr 15th 2008 7:38PM]

Oh noes, At&t wants to keep raising the status bar.

[Genjinaro @ Apr 15th 2008 7:43PM]

The majority of Philadelphia's Starbucks has been AT&T for about two months now. T-Mobile has officially got the boot in the city of brotherly love.

[Afroloop @ Apr 15th 2008 7:48PM]

OMG I had like 5 double caps at this place when the ATT guy was there. I bought him one too, cool guy named Gary.

[Lowest Ranked @ Apr 15th 2008 8:00PM]

Yeah, you might want to chill out on those for awhile.

[patric @ Apr 15th 2008 8:03PM]

i got to work yesterday (starbucks) and in the back there were two people working on the wi-fi with big laptops. My iphone said it was still T-Mobile but i don't know about today.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Apr 15th 2008 9:11PM]

Just curious, how big were these laptops?

[Scott Miller @ Apr 15th 2008 9:25PM]

BIG!

[warrrennnnn @ Apr 15th 2008 11:50PM]

Venti. Obviously.

[thebigDallas @ Apr 16th 2008 5:04PM]

I work for starbucks, and you have been able to log in with your at&t dsl account info for at least a month now, the free syrups and all that stuff started today or yesterday as well, a majority of starbucks don't have the lcd showing the current song playing, and the starbucks that have internet around here have a T1 line installed and then an advanced wireless router. Our computers internet has been at&t for a while, just t-mobile was supplying the internet for the cafe.

[gabe @ Apr 15th 2008 8:08PM]

whatever happened to "free" - like all the rest of my downtown coffee shops?

[gabe @ Apr 15th 2008 8:42PM]

oh u must be another drone that likes to pay for internet - happy surfing

[rhY @ Apr 17th 2008 10:45AM]

People need to support local businesses! I agree! Down with corporate America! One way you can help is by reviewing local coffee houses (with free wifi) on Yelp.com.

Do yourself and all of us a favor!

[kodabar @ Apr 15th 2008 8:39PM]

How fascinating. Please tell us more...

[Mike C @ Apr 15th 2008 8:12PM]

This actually makes me really happy to hear since I get free ATT WiFi with my DSL service at home.

[Max Savin @ Apr 15th 2008 8:19PM]

I think iPhone can be 10% responsible for the transition

[Bender Bending Rodriguez @ Apr 15th 2008 8:29PM]

Apple's teaming with AT&T and Starbucks seems to be responsible for a lot more than 10% of the reason.

[Anthony @ Apr 15th 2008 8:27PM]

I was at a B&N with a Starbucks in it near Pittsburgh PA and my iPhone found an AT&T access point.

[Miguel @ Apr 15th 2008 11:02PM]

My B&N has its own free WiFi network, even with a Starbucks cafe area inside. You can get online without the AT&T access point. Lovely.

[Vijay @ Apr 15th 2008 8:33PM]

Does this mean, iPhone users will get free WiFi access at Starbucks?

[Joe @ Apr 15th 2008 8:39PM]

Customers can get up to two free hours of Wifi access per day, if you buy something in the store on a Starbucks Card.

Existing AT&T customers can login to use the Wifi service and anyone else can pay $4 for a two-hour session or $20 a month for unlimited access.

[T-Bone @ Apr 15th 2008 11:31PM]

Pretty soon, yes. According to the press releases a few months ago, AT&T will give Wireless customers free access just like DSL subscribers.

[Wayne Schulz @ Apr 15th 2008 9:04PM]

The Starbucks in Glastonbury CT definitely has an AT&T login -- though it's not as prominent -- just a square in the upper right corner. I am not an AT&T subscriber or I would have tried it out.


I had the same thought - maybe Starbucks had gone AT&T - but only the T-Mo SSID was in the air.

[thebigDallas @ Apr 16th 2008 5:04PM]

I work for starbucks, and you have been able to log in with your at&t dsl account info for at least a month now, the free syrups and all that stuff started today or yesterday as well, a majority of starbucks don't have the lcd showing the current song playing, and the starbucks that have internet around here have a T1 line installed and then an advanced wireless router. Our computers internet has been at&t for a while, just t-mobile was supplying the internet for the cafe.

[GenericWhiteGuy @ Apr 15th 2008 9:12PM]

In Hawaii they switched over all the hot spots, but forgot to turn on broadcasting the SSID. So, every starbucks here has said "unknown network" for the past few weeks. You can connect, but you have to guess which network is starbucks and manually enter "tmobile" to connect.

[Pete @ Apr 15th 2008 9:14PM]

My buddies and I were at that Starbucks today for our daily lunchtime coffee fix when they were installing the new wifi gear. We're friendly with the assistant manager there and he said they were expecting it to be active by this afternoon. The "two free hours" deal is not active yet, and he wasn't sure when it was going to actually start. The wifi was not active yet when we left (around noon or so).

Hopefully it will be tomorrow. Two of us have iPhones and are very interested in the wifi deal.

[robothouse @ Apr 15th 2008 9:14PM]

WHY NOT MAKE IT FREE? Seriously, for a company that tries to be hip, they seem to be living in the dark ages when it comes to Wifi. Caribou is free. Dunn Bros. is free. Local joints are free. Why not Starbucks?

And they wonder why their business is failing...

[peestandingup @ Apr 15th 2008 9:51PM]

Hence the name: StarBUCKS. As in, give us $4 for some steamed milk & drink it down with our coffee that tastes like pure burnt ass that we sell to these dumb yuppies who wouldn't know a good coffee if it fell over in their laps. Oh, & pay us for WiFi too.

Sorry, I'm better now.

[zbot @ Apr 15th 2008 10:31PM]

I know it's totally infuriating. This is why we should all support the local coffee shops. F starbucks.

[David Owens @ Apr 16th 2008 10:40AM]

it's not failing, moron.

[Bob @ Apr 15th 2008 9:20PM]

hmm... I was just at Starbucks in Parsippany NJ. The one in the barns & noble. I saw what was T-Mobile Hotspot WiFi now renamed as AT&T. I actually connected using my iPhone and my AT&T account. It seems that Parsippany has been in for secret trials for a while. Like I find stuff in game stores that usually will be released the end of the week for sale on a Monday. For example I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl 3 days early here in town. I also got Halo 3 a day before it was released. Local Best Buy's had the N810 for sale like 1 week early. I think that all retail stores in this town don't care at all about selling stuff early.

[Jon @ Apr 15th 2008 10:26PM]

Bob,

I live in Parsippany too and know the B&N well. They've always had att. I think the t-mobile network you picked up was probably from the new T-mobile store next door.

[giedrys @ Apr 15th 2008 9:32PM]

Go ahead, switch. I'm still covered, because i have T-Mo total internet plan and ATT gives me hotspot access for being their DSL customer. But i agree with others, Wi-Fi should be free in places like that. People paying them too much already for their coffee-flavored drinks.

[Inugami @ Apr 15th 2008 9:45PM]

WoW first i hear about net neutrality in the UK and now this bullshit with starbucks charging for WiFi? Guess i'm not going to Starbucks anymore.

[T-Bone @ Apr 15th 2008 10:43PM]

You've been getting free wifi at Starbucks? Last I checked, 2 free hours is a step up from their usual service.

[Andrew @ Apr 15th 2008 9:56PM]

Yeah! We actually have a Barnes & Noble Cafe that serves Starbucks Coffee, and they were using AT&T/Bellsouth/almost any other thing you could imagine.

It was amazing being able to type in my AT&T or Bellsouth account and password and get (sort of free? Maybe?) WiFi service!

This is good ol' Mount Pleasant, South Carolina here, btw.

And I'll have to see if it's really free when my next bill comes.

No 3000 page bills AT&T, please?!

[Daniel @ Apr 15th 2008 9:56PM]

Been login' on with my AT&T wifi account here in Atlanta. It's not a total switch over yet, but, I can click on the AT&T link and login with no problems. Good stuff...

[Always Private @ Apr 15th 2008 10:24PM]

just give everyone free internet by sharing your internet connection...that way everyone goes out through your ;aptp[... and if you happen to sniff out a few passwords or bank account info... just ignore it....

[NONO @ Apr 15th 2008 10:28PM]

Here in the East Bay CA all the Starbucks have been offering AT&T logins since ends of February. They still show the T-Mobile SSID but the upper right corner has the redirect for AT&T customers.

Haven't checked today if they've changed it. Will in a couple hours.

As for the people saying "make it for free!" I understand, but if you really want free wifi, just drive down the street, neighborhood or use www.jiwire.com to look for free spots... well, atleast I can do that here in the bay area :-D [I have AT&T DSL so i'ts free for me ;-)]

[captainmac @ Apr 15th 2008 10:30PM]

The Phoenix SB's I've been to have still been TMobile. Hope they will switch over soon.

[Alber1690 @ Apr 15th 2008 11:03PM]

Didn't T-Mobile offer free wireless access to its cellphone subscribers? It would be really nice if AT&T did something similar, although it would be a little harder considering it has the biggest user base.

[Jubei @ Apr 15th 2008 11:08PM]

Great news for iPod Touch & iPhone users!