So the reason you’ve always had to pay for your WiFi connection at Starbucks is that the coffee chain had a contract with T-Mobile for their Internet service… and that contract was expensive. 

Now Starbucks has switched over to AT&T for service, and that deal will save them some money.  So they want to pass the savings on to you, in a way.  If you are one of the Starbucks customers that uses a “Starbucks purchase card” (whatever that is), you will now get 2 hours of WiFi for free.  Additional 2-hour blocks will be $3.99. 

Oh, you can also pay for a WiFi membership of sorts, for $19.99, which will give you unlimited free access to the web at all 70,000 AT&T hotspots (even the non-Starbucks ones). 

Here’s a quote from some Starbucks big-wig about the new arrangement:

Welday said the company viewed the deal with Starbucks as a “competitive opportunity.”

“Here we are with the nation’s largest Wi-Fi network,” Welday said. “Consumer trends are clearly pointing toward an increased need and desire to access broadband outside the home and office — what a terrific opportunity.”

Yes.  It is a terrific opportunity… to rip people off.  Look, maybe I’m closed-minded, but I tend to think that if I can get WiFi for free (at such wonderful establishments as Panera Bread or Krystal) then having to pay for it somewhere else is ridiculous.  The list of places that carry free WiFi for customers is growing by the day.  Starbucks is banking on their customer loyalty (to the coffee) to make some money off the WiFi, and that’s aggravating to me. 

Sure, I like their coffee.  Who doesn’t?  But I don’t like it enough to pay extra just to view the Internet while I drink it.  Panera’s coffee is pretty darn good too, and I can surf the web for hours on end there without having to pay any extra cost or hold a special type of purchasing card. 

But I know that there are many of you who are Starbucks junkies, who have gladly paid the necessary WiFi fees all along.  So for those people, this is probably welcome news. 

It’s sort of like the Wall Street Journal news we covered recently (where they’re making more content free, but still charging a premium for other stuff), where something that used to cost a lot of money is made free-er, but still not completely free. 

Also:

AT&T also is giving Starbucks’ more than 100,000 U.S. employees free wireless accounts and said it will soon extend the Wi-Fi at Starbucks to its wireless phone customers.

So great… if you happen to work for Starbucks…your WiFi will be completely free.  In your face, customers!!