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Google Replaces AT&T At Starbucks

Posted by samzenpus on 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."

16 of 100 comments (clear)

  1. This was definitely needed! by ZorinLynx · · 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 · · 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 · · 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 · · 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 · · 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
  2. That'll be great until... by agapeton · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...Google decides to cancel the service all the sudden.

    1. Re:That'll be great until... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Says the man logging in through Google.

  3. Uh oh.. by fred911 · · 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 mjwx · · 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.
    2. Re:Uh oh.. by bickerdyke · · Score: 3, Funny

      My name was already written down and shouted through the room by that guy behind that effing huge coffeemaker...

      --
      bickerdyke
  4. McDonald's too? by macraig · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if this also includes McDonald's, which has the same WiFi contract with AT&T?

  5. No Just deliberately misleading by tuppe666 · · 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.

  6. Re:Soon they'll make hamburgers too by lxs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Would you like spies with that?

  7. Re:mer me me oh please god me by MSG · · 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.

  8. Google not providing the network most places... by Rhyas · · Score: 4, Informative

    It will be Level 3 equipment/network instead of AT&T for this deal.

  9. Re:leeches by Anonymous Coward · · 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.