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Starbucks To Offer Free Wi-Fi, New Digital Network

Wired, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 11:53 PM

Starting July 1, Starbucks will let anyone connect to its WiFi network for free. This fall, the company will add a content network called Starbucks Digital Network, in partnership with Yahoo and other sites, which will include local content you won't be able to read anywhere else. Both offerings will be free.

CEO Howard Schulz told the Wired Business Conference: "Free Wi-Fi is in my mind just the price of admission - we want to create ... new sources of content that you can only get at Starbucks. ... "This is a thing that doesn't exist in any other consumer marketplace in America." Starbucks hopes to make money from these initiatives indirectly, by making the content "so compelling that it drives incremental traffic," said Schulz.

Read the whole story at Wired »

coffee, digital, wifi

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