- Aug 20, 2000
- 20,577
- 432
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...is the title of a Mercury News article.
SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - As if the caffeine wasn't enough to get customers going, Starbucks Corp. Wednesday launched coffee drinkers into cyberspace with high-speed wireless Internet access at some 1,200 cafes.
Chairman Howard Schultz told Reuters everything computing was going mobile and Starbucks, based in the high-tech coffee-loving city of Seattle, wanted to be part of that trend. He added, of course, he expected customers to buy more coffee while using the system.
The experiment also serves as a starting point for telephone companies aiming to supplement global data networks based on cellphone-type technology with super fast ``hot spots'' offering connections at corporate-level speeds.
The networks are based on the Wi-Fi standard, which lets laptops, digital assistants and other devices equipped with antennas surf at speeds about 5 times as fast as a cable modem from within 300 feet of a Wi-Fi hub.
T-Mobile will offer per-minute and unlimited-use plans at rates on par with home Internet service, saying executives and retail customers had proven in a year of trials they would pay for the convenience.
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:Q Very chic of Starbucks (aka The Evil Empire). If they put together a decent unlimited plan this could really take off and propagate all over...
SAN FRANCISCO, (Reuters) - As if the caffeine wasn't enough to get customers going, Starbucks Corp. Wednesday launched coffee drinkers into cyberspace with high-speed wireless Internet access at some 1,200 cafes.
Chairman Howard Schultz told Reuters everything computing was going mobile and Starbucks, based in the high-tech coffee-loving city of Seattle, wanted to be part of that trend. He added, of course, he expected customers to buy more coffee while using the system.
The experiment also serves as a starting point for telephone companies aiming to supplement global data networks based on cellphone-type technology with super fast ``hot spots'' offering connections at corporate-level speeds.
The networks are based on the Wi-Fi standard, which lets laptops, digital assistants and other devices equipped with antennas surf at speeds about 5 times as fast as a cable modem from within 300 feet of a Wi-Fi hub.
T-Mobile will offer per-minute and unlimited-use plans at rates on par with home Internet service, saying executives and retail customers had proven in a year of trials they would pay for the convenience.
--
:Q Very chic of Starbucks (aka The Evil Empire). If they put together a decent unlimited plan this could really take off and propagate all over...
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