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Starbucks Clashes With WiFi Hobbyists Over Airwaves

Posted by timothy on from the dr-evil-at-play dept.

fobbman writes: "Portland Oregon's Pioneer Square (the heart of downtown) has had free WiFi access provided since February by Personal Telco, which is a local group of computer hobbyists. Now Starbuck's is planning on offering the same service on the same band in the same area for $29.95 a month, according to this story in the local fishwrap. Without regulation or licensing, and with WiFi growing, this could become a common problem."

2 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. WTF? by Warped-Reality · · Score: 0, Redundant

    What the hell is starbucks doing offering wifi?

    --
    This is not the greatest sig in the world, no. This is just a tribute.
  2. Can I just Hop On? by Superfreaker · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I live in NYC and go to a small cafe to do work on my laptop. The cafe is right next door to Starbucks. I'm assuming Starbucks charges for access (plus I loathe going in there), so could I just hope on their network from next door, or do I need to be on their specific configuration? If the answer to the above is "yes", then can I pay for access once, get teh config info, then hop on using that same info at a later time? Or do they just charge for when you are in the store itself? hmmm......