T-Mobile Sues Starbucks Over Free Wi-Fi Deal

Glenn Fleishman writes "T-Mobile sent me the text of a lawsuit they filed yesterday against Starbucks. The telecom firm alleges that Starbucks didn't involve it in any discussions to launch their free loyalty program Wi-Fi service this week with AT&T. AT&T is gradually taking over hot-spot operation from T-Mobile, market by market over the course of 2008. T-Mobile told me Starbucks is essentially giving away something that isn't theirs. T-Mobile has sued to halt the two-hours-a-day of free service, and is asking for money to cover losses. This might sound like sour grapes, but T-Mobile still operates most of the network, and says that the terms to which they agreed with Starbucks and AT&T for the transition and with AT&T for bilateral roaming don't cover this situation at all. Maybe free access in exchange for buying a cup of joe every 30 days was too good to be true (this soon)."

Comments

Re:Hmmm

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

You actually CAN let whomever you wish use it and charge them whatever you want. But if anything happens to the car, you would be responsible for the damage. And if you weren't driving, there's all kinds of legal stuff in there.

But you CAN let someone else drive and charge them for it. Just like I CAN download movies of the bittorrents. Just because something is illegal doesn't mean you can't do it.