Starbucks will offer free Wi-Fi

SEATTLE (AP) - Starbucks Corp. and AT&T Inc. will start offering a mix of free and paid wireless Internet service in most of the global coffee retailer's U.S. shops, beginning this spring.

The move announced Monday ends a six-year Starbucks partnership with TMobile, which did not include free Wi-Fiand charged higher fees than AT&T will.

Starbucks said it will give customers who use a Starbucks purchase card two hours of free wireless access per day. More time than that will cost $3.99 for a two-hour session. Monthly memberships will cost $19.99 and include access to any of AT&T's 70,000 hot spots worldwide.

Nearly all of AT&T's broadband Internet customers, about 12 million, will automatically have unlimited free Wi-Fiaccess at Starbucks, the companies said.

The deal boosts the number of AT&T hotspots in the U.S. to 17,000 - the most in the nation.

''We're very excited about what we're doing together to align ourselves with what consumers want,'' said Rick Welday, a chief marketing officer for AT&T's consumer business.

Starbucks faced serious pressure to improve its Wi-Fioffering, since many of its competitors, from neighborhood coffee houses to fastfood chains like McDonald's Corp., already offer it for free or at lower cost than the TMobile service, noted Howard Penney, managing director of consumer research at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., Inc.

AT&T has powered the network service Starbucks uses to run its cash registers and other computer systems for years.

Last month, AT&T, the nation's largest telecommunication company, announced plans to make its then-10,000 U.S. Wi-Fihotspots free to nearly all of its broadband Internet customers.