SEATTLE - AT&T Inc. will supply Starbucks Corp. stores with wireless Internet access, ending a six-year partnership with T-Mobile USA Inc., and offer the service free to about 12 million of its residential online customers.
Starbucks said yesterday that it will give customers who use a Starbucks card two hours of free wireless access per day.
More time than that will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session. Monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots worldwide.
Nearly all of AT&T's broadband Internet customers, about 12 million, will automatically have unlimited free Wi-Fi access at Starbucks outlets, the companies said.
The deal boosts the number of AT&T hot spots in the United States to 17,000 - the most in the nation.
"We're very excited about what we're doing together to align ourselves with what consumers want," said Rick Welday, chief marketing officer for AT&T's consumer business.
Current T-Mobile HotSpot customers, who pay from $6 per hourlong session to $9.99 for a day pass to $39.99 a month for unlimited access, will get Wi-Fi access at no extra charge through an agreement between AT&T and T-Mobile.
Starbucks will begin rolling out the new service this spring and aims to have it available in its more than 7,000 company-operated domestic stores by the end of the year.
Asked if problems with quality and service reliability were factors in Starbucks' decision to part with T-Mobile, Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' chief technology officer, said no.
"Starbucks was at a place where we were evaluating who our right go-forward partners should be, and as we looked at who could provide that in the best possible way, AT&T continuously came back to the front," Bruzzo said.
The companies did not disclose financial terms of their deal.
Starbucks' switch to AT&T is a big blow for T-Mobile, which has nearly 8,900 wireless hot spots in the United States, most of them in the coffee company's stores.
T-Mobile also offers its subscription wireless service in Borders Books and Music stores, FedEx Kinko's stores, various hotels, airports and airline clubs.
T-Mobile USA, based in suburban Bellevue, Wash., did not immediately return calls for comment.
The Baltimore Sun
