Google Replaces AT&T At Starbucks

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Google Replaces AT&T At Starbucks

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday July 31, 2013 @03:03PM from the new-and-improved dept.

coolnumbr12 writes "A new partnership between Starbucks and Google hopes to improve the lives of freelance writers around the country. Starting in August, Google plans to make Internet speeds at all 7,000 Starbucks locations in the U.S. 10 times faster than the current AT&T-powered service. For people in a city equipped with Google Fiber, Google says the speed in Starbucks could increase as much as 100 times."

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This was definitely needed! by ZorinLynx · 2013-07-31 15:06 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's about freaking time!
Whenever I go to Starbucks I often find myself turning OFF my Wi-Fi because my (also AT&T, strangely) LTE cellular connection is several times faster than the Wi-Fi there. Sometimes I even have trouble sending something as low-bandwidth as a freaking tweet!
I think Starbucks uses slow consumer-grade DSL connections, because that's what it feels like. Upstream capacity is severely limited, and downstream is only slightly less so. I remember attempting a Facetime call and getting less than one frame per second in both directions and constant reconnecting...turned off Wi-Fi and it was smooth as silk.
Meanwhile, my experience in Starbucks in Canada (where they don't use AT&T) is far superior.
1. Re:This was definitely needed! by jtownatpunk.net · 2013-07-31 15:20 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Same here except substitute Verizon for AT&T and hotels for Starbucks. One time, I was staying in a motel in the middle of a large city and their internet service felt as slow as satellite. Huge latency, mediocre speeds. When I went out to the car, I saw a friggin' DirecWay dish at the end of the building. I could only assume that they had some ridiculous contract that required they put satellite internet at all of their locations. Another hotel limited their free internet to 1mb down. If you wanted 10mb, you had to pay something like $10/day. Ridonkulous.
  Now I just fire up the hotspot on my phone and get service almost as fast as my cablemodem at home and nobody else can [easily] access the data on my WPA2 connection. If I was really paranoid, I'd use wired tethering. Even if I'm really out in the sticks, I still get 3G and that's plenty good for surfing.
2. Re:This was definitely needed! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-31 16:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Of course it's slow. High speed internet is expensive. Starbucks are locally owned and can't just splurge on faster internet for the freeloaders. The question is how is Google actually going to get higher speeds. They can't just wave a magic wand and suddenly the wires improve. They're going to be eating a lot of cash to upgrade stuff.
  But sheesh, it's coffee. Buy your drink then LEAVE.
3. Re:This was definitely needed! by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-31 18:44 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Starbucks coffee is pretty good. It's not the absolute highest end fine european coffee, but it's far better than the swill most americans drinks. Starbucks actually tastes like coffee, not just milk. I can drink starbucks black, it isn't bitter at all, because they extract it correctly. For most people, Starbucks is the best coffee around. Snobby fancy local coffee shops serving on fair-trade, organic, single origin, specialty coffee, are far and few between.
4. Re:This was definitely needed! by Zenin · 2013-07-31 22:10 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Starbucks are locally owned and [...]
  No, they aren't. With few exceptions they are all 100% company owned (at least in the 'States).
  Starbucks is not a franchise, which is why they've been able to push out so many local coffee shops. With the weight of the entire corporation able to be brought to bear at any single location, they've been able to run locations at a loss for years right next to mom & pop shops. The "genius" here is that they don't need to do better then the mom & pop to win...they simply need to reduce the income of the mom & pop shop enough to make them unprofitable...and then wait them out until they leave. Then with the location clear of competition they get all the business.
  NOT being locally owned is the key to Starbuck's domination.
  
  --
  My /. uid is better then your /. uid
5. Re:This was definitely needed! by MBGMorden · 2013-08-01 01:25 · Score: 2
  
  Hotel wireless is universally crappy in my opinion. You either have to pay some ridiculous fee for it ($10 per day), or its so slow and spotty that I'll have trouble Googling restaurants just to find directions.
  Lately I too have taken to simply tethering my phone to the laptop whenever I'm in a hotel room. The connection is more stable, fast, and never costs extra. I do the wired tether not for security reasons but I like the fact that by connecting it I'm both using my phone and charging it at the same time.
  
  --
  "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
That'll be great until... by agapeton · 2013-07-31 15:10 · Score: 5, Insightful

...Google decides to cancel the service all the sudden.
1. Re:That'll be great until... by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-31 15:21 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Says the man logging in through Google.
Uh oh.. by fred911 · 2013-07-31 15:16 · Score: 4, Insightful

Please sign in with your Google+ account and accept our TOS!

--
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B - D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
1. Re:Uh oh.. by game+kid · 2013-07-31 15:27 · Score: 2
  
  You spent real money for your latte. Now cough up your real name for YouTube!
  
  --
  You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
2. Re:Uh oh.. by mjwx · 2013-07-31 17:09 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Please sign in with your Google+ account and accept our TOS!
  Which to be fair, is probably several times less abusive than the AT&T TOS that Starbucks accepted on your behalf.
  
  --
  Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
3. Re:Uh oh.. by bickerdyke · 2013-07-31 19:04 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  My name was already written down and shouted through the room by that guy behind that effing huge coffeemaker...
  
  --
  bickerdyke
4. Re:Uh oh.. by rthille · 2013-08-01 03:25 · Score: 2
  
  Yep, Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg, your coffee is ready.
  
  --
  Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
Correction: by bengoerz · 2013-07-31 15:19 · Score: 2

Google demonstrates ability to rapidly expand their carrier services nationwide through partnering with established carriers. Passersby injured from falling bricks shat from oligolpolistic ISPs atop their high horses.
leeches by p51d007 · 2013-07-31 15:34 · Score: 2

Well, at least all the starbuck leeches will have another reason to sit in starbucks all day long. Free wi-fi. Never been in one, but friends say that they sometimes see the same people with their laptops & phones just sitting there all day long leeching off their wifi. Typical...to cheap to pay for it themselves, so they just leech off someone else.
1. Re:leeches by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-31 19:33 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  I am a Starbucks customer. Yes, I leech too.
  
  I have to face it. I am single. I cannot economically justify the expense of a personal high-speed internet connection, and the way web pages are coded these days, using a low speed connection is next to useless for anything but google searches.
  
  I do buy their coffee while I am in there, and consider the markup on the cup of coffee about right for providing me access to the net. Yes, there are some leeches, but most I see are people who really need this... college students just looking for a place to socialize and study, and I note some homeless people using it. I just feel fortunate I have the means to buy the coffee. I feel Starbucks is doing a better job of supporting my area than most when it comes to what they do with the dollar that goes across their counter.
  
  The library and local college have wifi access too. So does McDonalds, but McDonalds is not quite the kind of place to sit back and contemplate things like Starbucks is.
mer me me oh please god me by WOOFYGOOFY · 2013-07-31 15:36 · Score: 2

please please come to my starbucks. Oh god please let them come to my starbucks.
1. Re:mer me me oh please god me by MSG · 2013-07-31 18:36 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  You don't even have to read the article. The summary says that Google will replace AT&T at all US locations.
McDonald's too? by macraig · 2013-07-31 16:00 · Score: 4, Interesting

I wonder if this also includes McDonald's, which has the same WiFi contract with AT&T?
1. Re:McDonald's too? by adolf · 2013-07-31 20:44 · Score: 2
  
  "Same contract" as in "one stack of paper with both Starbucks and McDonald's listed at the top of it"?
  Possible, but extremely doubtful.
  Much, much more likely: A minimum of one contract per entity. Srsly. Get out of your bubble once in a while.
  
  --
  Kid-proof tablet..
Re:More bandwidth for them by fermion · 2013-07-31 16:04 · Score: 2, Insightful

It is possible that Google will use this opportunity to collect data, track the users across networks, This will probably be very valuable. Hooking up directly to Google hardware will likely allow them to snoop and collect data not accessible through generic hardware. Last time I was in a Starbucks I had to click through an advertisement, so clearly Starbucks and ATT are not seeing a lot of inhernet value in the current arrangement.
This value may translate into allowances for higher speeds. They could also offer a free slow speed, upgrade speed if you log into you Google accounts, offer day passes, or simply limit the downloaded content. It does seem unimaginable that Starbucks would find value creating a high speed location to look at pr0n.
I don't find anything wrong with the current ATT situation. It has changed over time, gotten better and worse, but right now it is good. It is probably a expense that Starbucks wants to get rid of. I find fewer coffee houses that gives free and open internet. I find department stores has better broadband, you know surf on the ipad while the others shop.

--
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Re:I'm rather shocked... by __aaltlg1547 · 2013-07-31 16:14 · Score: 2

A company, some of whose practices we don't like, has other practices and services many people do like.
No Just deliberately misleading by tuppe666 · 2013-07-31 16:48 · Score: 4, Informative

So, you can search on Duck-Duck-Go, but it takes twice as long as Google
Only because Duck Duck Go is slower. The Net Neutrality part (as described in the article) means you can't run your business servers inside Starbucks. Nothing to do with prioritising one web-site over another.
Re:Soon they'll make hamburgers too by lxs · 2013-07-31 17:57 · Score: 5, Funny

Would you like spies with that?
Re:Oh well I guess that's it then by Anonymous Coward · 2013-07-31 17:59 · Score: 2, Funny

Awww, wook at this cutsie-wootsie who thought AT&T wouldn't think to twack him "at the packet level" at Stawbucks! Who's my pwecious naive sillyhead? You are, yes you are!
Google not providing the network most places... by Rhyas · 2013-07-31 18:48 · Score: 4, Informative

It will be Level 3 equipment/network instead of AT&T for this deal.
Re:Oh well I guess that's it then by Chrontius · 2013-07-31 18:51 · Score: 2

Actually, aren't you "Citizen 2587965"?
Re:So it'll be even less likely by bickerdyke · 2013-07-31 19:14 · Score: 2

Well... nowadays, everyone's a critic.
But never forget:
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
Sounds like already Shakespeare saw the comming of Google Glass....

--
bickerdyke
Now if they could only improve the coffee! by dreamchaser · 2013-07-31 23:19 · Score: 2

Seriously. Starbucks is about the best example of the 'Emperor's Clothes' syndrome in the fast food market. Their burnt, overroasted coffee is atrocious!