T-Mobile Sues Starbucks Over Free Wi-Fi Deal 142
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)."
Free wifi should be universal (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:hmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Free wifi should be universal (Score:3, Insightful)
You're assuming that they have their own ADSL link to every shop. They don't. They decided to let T-Mobile and AT&T control their networking infrastructure, and the operators are understandably less than thrilled by the free competition.
In other words, they decided to give control of their network to a potentially hostile company, and they're getting what they bargained for.
Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe I'm missing something but this sounds like the equivalent of getting a lawsuit from Dominos because I ordered a pizza from Papa Johns instead.
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Free wifi should be universal (Score:1, Insightful)
Cripes most people gave up their crappy early 90's PDA a long time ago. and all current pdas have a web browser.
Or do you not know how to use your pda?
Re:Free wifi should be universal (Score:3, Insightful)
The thing is that once most places offer free wifi, not having it is a disadvantage.