Introduction: Starbucks

‘Travel at blazing speeds on the Internet – all from the comfort of your favorite cozy chair’ (Starbucks, 2007). This headline illustrates the next step in the development of Wi-Fi: from its original application within the enterprise, then subsequently moving into the home, it has been the Starbucks initiative to provide wireless access to the Internet in its coffee shops that has set up Wi-Fi as the preferred means of accessing the Internet in public areas. For Starbucks, it was the prospect of attracting more customers and keeping them longer in the coffeehouse, in particular after the rush hour, that made investments in the new service an attractive proposition.

In January 2001 Starbucks, MobileStar and Microsoft announced that they had forged a strategic relationship in order to create a high-speed, connected environment in Starbucks locations across North America. The service would be provided by MobileStar, a wireless ISP established in 1996 with a focus on providing high-speed internet access for business travellers in ‘hotspots’ such as airports, hotels, convention centres, restaurants and other public places in the United States. MobileStar would install access points in the Starbucks locations and connect these locations to the Internet using T1 lines. Microsoft was to provide the portal so as to facilitate an easy log-on procedure (Microsoft, 2001).