10Meters News Service
August 26, 2002 – Can't make it through the morning commute without a latte and your email? Then, Starbucks has a special offering just for you.
Beginning this week, Starbucks customers can check their email and browse the Web via high-speed wireless networks inside many Starbucks coffeehouses. The service is available on a free trial basis through the company's partnership with T-Mobile, the mobile division of Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, and Hewlett-Packard. Some 1200 Starbucks stores are participating in the promotion, featuring Telekom AG's T-Mobile HotSpot service and HP software.
"This service is a natural extension of the Starbucks coffeehouse experience, which has always been about making connections with the people and information that are important to us over a cup of coffee," said Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and chief global strategist.
T-Mobile HotSpot service uses standards based "Wi-Fi" (802.11b) technology and is accessible for Starbucks customers with a wireless-ready notebook computer or Pocket PC. Also part of the solution: HP's new Wireless Connection Manager. The free, downloadable software allows users to configure their wirelessly enabled notebook and Pocket PCs to automatically sense and connect to available wireless networks. It can be downloaded at the Starbucks Web site.
Starbucks said it aiming the service primarily at mobile professionals. According to the Yankee Group 2002 Corporate Wireless Survey, almost 25 percent of all enterprise workers are considered mobile, spending more that 20 percent of their time away from their workspace. Yankess said this equates to approximately 40 million mobile professionals in the U.S. who still want and need access to their e-mail, the Internet, or their corporate intranet.
