Free Wi-Fi at Barnes for Home SBC DSL

[Gekko11]

For those just wishing to chill at the Barnes and Noble instead of shopping this holiday season...


Barnes & Noble customers can sign up for a single two-hour session for $3.95. Customers can also sign up for an annual membership with unlimited access to more than 5,000 SBC Wi-Fi hot spots, including Barnes & Noble bookstores, for $19.95 per month. Through an introductory offer, SBC Yahoo DSL customers can receive unlimited access to SBC FreedomLink hot spots at no charge until April 15, 2005 and pay just $1.99 a month with a one-year term commitment thereafter.


The addition of Barnes & Noble bookstores makes the FreedomLink network one of the nation's largest Wi-Fi networks, with the service available in more than 5,000 locations throughout the U.S. By the end of 2006, the SBC FreedomLink service is expected to be available in more than 20,000 locations. Customers can view a list of FreedomLink locations by visiting

www.sbc.com/freedomlink

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[user1234]

didn't they realize already that charging for wifi wouldn't work ? with free wifi in many cities public parks, some campuses and even a few coffee shops, why would people pay for it ? and if you really need it when you're away from home, just drive in any residential area and you'll see dozens of unsecured wifi networks which originate from people's homes, that you can connect to without any problem ! the reality is that most people don't secure their home networks with encription and/or filtering, so the situation right now is that wifi is free. And soon enough wifi will be provided free by most public institutions, so I bet it will continue to be freely accessible for the foreseeable future.

 

[TrentSteel]

Weak.

Most places that have wifi offer it for free. Why go somewhere that makes you pay for it?

 

[mikeford]

It could just as easily go the other way with some issue forcing all the free wifi to shutdown, or restrict access to registered users.

 

[kuangs168]

it's very easy to pickup wifi in neighborhood, i tried once got like 8 wifi detected and all unsecured. the hotspot charge is gay, not everywhere can connect. so why pay for them

 

[preslove]

The coffee shop i frequent has free wifi. There are places around town on the city's $10 a year plan, which I may sign up for at some point in the future.

 

[NiNe]

Why thread crap?

For someone who wants to sit in B&N (and has or wants SBC), this is a good deal. My local B&N is connected to a FourBucks Coffee with T-Mobile. This deal is quite cheap in comparison.

And why compare it to wardriving through neighborhoods? How is sitting in my car in the winter a comparable experience to sitting down with a latte in a comfy chair?

And what if I'm in the city? Sitting on the stoop outside a brownstone with Jack Frost sucking calories out my buttcheeks ain't my idea of comfort.

Locally, Panera Bread has free Wi-Fi, but their coffee sucks. So does Circuit City, but see above comments about winter.

 

[ThaPerculator]

There's a bunch of bars around me that have free wi-fi, and I believe most buffalo wild wings do.

Wifi + beer + chicken wings > all.