back to article Starbucks extends gratis Wi-Fi to UK

Starbucks has granted Brits free Wi-Fi access. Tweeted the coffee giant today: "All our customers can access Free Wi-Fi at hundreds of Starbucks locations throughout the UK. Just click 'Connect' and enjoy!" Starbucks free Wi-Fi UK Well, not quite all of the beverage purveyor's punters: the company was later forced to admit …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh joy.

    Now it'll be even harder to find somewhere to sit in those places for those of us who, you know, actually came for a coffee.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You came into Starbucks for a coffee?

      Interesting.

      I assumed they made coffee by applying the principles of homeopathy to warm milk.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      You go to Starbucks for coffee?!

    3. Andy 115
      FAIL

      Starbucks =/= Coffee....

      If you really want a coffee, I seriously doubt your local Starbucks is the place to go to get the best quality example...

    4. JC_
      Joke

      You go to Starbucks for the coffee?!?

      1. AlexH

        No - for tea.

        I can't comment on their coffee, but I did get a really top-notch cup of tea from a Starbucks the other day...

  2. Jess

    Does it have the crap login requirements like McDonalds?

    This makes the system a pain, you have to log in to use it. (And it doesn't even work reliably with all devices)

    I went on holiday to Belgrade, earlier in the year. All the hotspots there just worked. Just connect, and that's it.

    1. JC_
      Thumb Down

      If there's no login requirement then there's not much to stop any old punter using it. Fair enough, you might think, but they're businesses, not charities.

      1. Joe Cooper

        Starbucks Poland

        I live in Poland and the Starbucks here has free wifi with no login or anything.

    2. Velv

      Starbucks have actually had free wifi for a long time now IF you registered a Starbucks card. That had a login to BTOpenzone using the registered details.

      I'm guessing therefore that they've removed the card requirement

  3. Silverburn
    Unhappy

    Free wifi + overpriced coffee

    translated:

    "Hopefully if we hook you up to some free wi-fi, you won't notice that your wallet is considerably lighter, and your coffee tastes like yak piss"

    1. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: Free wifi + overpriced coffee

      Stick to the cake then.

      1. hplasm
        Coat

        But

        the cake isn't very sticky either...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It's a lie...

  4. Mondo the Magnificent
    Devil

    No free airport Wi-Fi?

    So, how about Starbucks give you a voucher for 15 minutes of "free" Wi-Fi access when you buy a coffee.

    That way, some punters will be going through four coffees per hour, so that equates to just under £10/hour, making it the most expensive free Wi-Fi on the planet.

    The customers will be so very wired from the caffeine they probably wouldn't even notice..

    I should be in marketing.. not a techie...

  5. The BigYin

    Free or...

    ..."free". I thought you had to be a BT customer to use OpenZone? I am not and it pisses me off to find "free" wi-fi that I cannot use or have to pay for.

    I guess they could argue that they do not mean "free" in the sense of "no cost".

    1. tony

      Free as in 'Free public wifi"?

  6. Michael Jennings

    It might be a lease condition at airports, too.

    This is a response to Caffe Nero's recent decision to offer free WiFi, I suspect. Starbucks are usually more generous at offering power outlets for customers, so this is a good move. It will certainly mean I use Starbucks more often, even despite their somewhat inferior coffee.

    Both Pret a Manger and Wetherspoons offer free Wifi at their regular outlets and not at their airport outlets, too. I suspect it is because the owners of the airports have sold "exclusive" rights to offer WiFi within the airport to someone else, and therefore prevent regular retail tenants from offering it directly to their customers. It's certainly an annoying state of affairs.

    1. Gene Cash Silver badge

      Power outlets

      Over on this side of the pond, most Starbucks have actually removed a lot of their power outlets to discourage the "buy one coffee and surf all day" bunch.

    2. The Berk

      I work at JD Wetherspoons in an airport, and your suspicions are true. We managed to get our free WiFi hotspot active for a day before we were threatened with eviction due to breach of contract.

      Surprised?

  7. Dom 3

    Eh?

    If you want coffee, what in dog's name are you doing in Starbucks?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Well, I suppose it saves me thirty seconds (if that) entering my BT FON credentials :-)

    Just hope Starbucks aren't raising their prices to fund this...

  9. Throg

    Not new

    Free wifi has been available at Starbucks in the UK for years.

    All you've ever needed to do is grab a Starbucks card, register it online and then use your Starbucks account to get free wifi. You only ever need to put money on the card once to register it and then you can buy your coffee with it as usual, leaving £0.00 on your card.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Free Internet too?

    I'm fed up with cafes and the like that advertise "free WiFi" - which is true - but then don't connect you to the Internet unless you pay through the nose for it. Seems too much like a 'bait-and-switch' trick. What use is a free WiFi connection that doesn't connect you to anything?

    So which is Starbucks offering - free WiFi or free Internet access?

  11. Serif
    FAIL

    Too little, too late

    Stopped using Starbucks a long time ago because of the hoops you had to jump through for WiFi. Moved elsewhere and discovered the coffee was a lot better too.

  12. Dropper
    FAIL

    Paying for WiFi in airports !!!?@@

    Why don't the airport/transportation authorities in the UK provide free WiFi at airports like they do in civilised society? Imagine arriving at an airport and actually having to PAY for WiFi.. the mind boggles.. that would be like paying some sort of license fee just to watch TV or listen to the radio..

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      you pay a licence fee to listen to the radio?

      1. James Micallef Silver badge

        you do in Switzerland at least, quite possibly many other places, directly or indirectly (for example, surely some of the UK license fee that goes to the beeb goes towards BBC radio?)

        1. Reue

          Hmm

          Part of the TV licence fee does go towards BBC radio, however it is not a legal requirement to own a licence in order to listen to radio.

      2. Andus McCoatover
        Joke

        I've got a cat licence.

        Well, it was on a dog licence, but the boke at the Post Office scribbled the word 'Dog' out, and wrote 'Cat' in crayon over it....

    2. JC_
      Thumb Up

      Presumably the user that voted you down has never been in an airport abroad, desperately needing to get online, and been hit with horrific charges to do so. There's always one idiot out there...

      1. My New Handle

        At Mauritius Airport

        The WiFi is completely free, and evenly distributed throughout the departure lounge so that everyone can get a signal. Talk of civilised nations should not exclude this little backwater nation that has simply got it right.

        Contrast with Charles De Gaul airport and of course our own BAA operated rip-offs and that puts this lot to complete shame.

  13. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    The cake is a lie

    Anything I've ever tried looks like it dropped off a conveyor belt in a factory in Slough.

  14. Cunningly Linguistic

    I'd be more impressed...

    ...if it was Costa Coffee or Coffee Republic offering it.

  15. bumpy
    Flame

    Why all the hate?

    Starbucks may not have coffee beans run through a civet cat, but here in the U.S. most of them offer a wide selection of beans and many have single cup brewing systems that yield a fine cup of coffee. Their staff are uniformly friendly (as required by policy) unlike some of the small coffee shops with their snooty hipsters pulling the shots, and equally hip clientele hunched over their Macbooks with ironic stickers plastered on the lid, using the local Wi-Fi which requires a WEP key that represents an inside joke.

    1. BongoJoe
      Meh

      Post your own message

      Perhaps the coffee in Starbucks::US is better than it is here.

      In the UK if one has a caffeine dependency then Starborks is the place to avoid as the stuff is weak and, well, rather pointless.

      if ever I venture into a city then I tend to look for an old fashioned place run by an Italian, Turk or a Greek that had been there since the fall of the Byzantium Empire as then I know that the coffee will be flavoursome and full of bollocks.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Because Starbucks produces awful tasting, watery coffee.

  16. Winkypop Silver badge
    Trollface

    Starbucks sell coffee?

    Who knew?

    I always thought it was overheated tramp sick?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crap Process

    I agree with other posters. In the US the connection just works. Hell, I walk past the local Starbucks on the way to the gym and wifi kicks in, no problem, no logon, no nothing. Any BT Openzone, even free access in the UK when I visit is a brutal pain in the ass for smartphone screens. Those Jackasses at BT have no flaming clue. Less with the logon thing, just make it work.

    1. The Indomitable Gall

      What we need...

      The whole Wi-Fi standard was very poorly thought out. The only authentication method specified was a single all-user password, so you can't really blame BT or anyone else for needing a web-based login screen.

      What we need is for the successor to WEP and WPA to specify a standard for individual user domain authentication. Until then, we're stuck with the hacks in the current generation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        It exists

        but try getting coffee shop workers to admin a RADIUS server.

  18. A 31
    Thumb Down

    re:Less with the logon thing, just make it work

    I want security, and a bit of pain for it thanks. But if getting your data nicked and identity stolen etc is fun for you, go ahead.

  19. Miek

    So, the Wifi is free if you are a BT openZone subscriber already ?

  20. Mark Morgan

    Starbucks have had free Wi-Fi for ages

    I've been using Starbucks free Wi-Fi for a couple of years. You just register a Starbucks card on their website. When you fire up the laptop, connect to the Starbucks BT Openzone hotspot and fire up the browser. You end up on a BT Openzone landing page with a Starbucks login option - no need to sign up to Openzone.

    The only time I tried a JD Wetherspoons hotspot the laptop couldn't handshake with the router.

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