I from home now. And, I’m too cheap (poor) to buy EVDO or HSDPA service for my notebooks since I can get WiFi service at most of the places I go to when running around. Or, so I thought… One of the places I depend on for broadband connectivity is Starbucks. It is air conditioned in the summer, dry (enclosed) in the winter, and I’m hooked on the blended lemonade and Vivanno there. However, I’ve been noticing more and more problems getting WiFi connectivity at Starbucks over the past few weeks. And, this week, the three Starbucks near my home all completely lost their WiFi as far as I can tell. I don’t see any SSID for either AT&T Wireless or T-Mobile. I spoke to employees at all three locations. Employees at two locations had not heard of any problems although they were aware of the changeover of equipment and management from T-Mobile to AT&T Wireless. The person at the third Starbucks had heard complaints from other customers about not getting WiFi there. I called T-Mobile Hotspot customer support after checking two Starbucks locations this afternoon. I carried two devices, an Acer Aspire One netbook and a T-Mobile Dash Windows Mobile smartphone, to test at both locations. Both devices saw SSIDs for various WiFi Access Points (WAPs). But, neither saw a T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless SSID. The T-Mobile HotSpot phone tech support person told me that the network status indicator he was looking at said all three hotspots were up. He suggested that I call the support number from the Starbucks location with the problem the next time I run into it. The T-Mobile US HotSpot support number is: 877.822.7768.
James Kendrick, of JkOnTheRun.com, note similar issues earlier this month in his blog item: Is Starbucks WiFi having problems? So, I know (a) I’m not the only one seeing this problem and (b) the problem is not localized to where I live.
Comments
2 responses to “The Case of the Vanishing Starbucks Hotspots”
Frank: I hear what you are saying. But, two points: (1) I am PAYING for T-Mobile’s WiFi service as part of my phone bill. So, I expect service for what I pay. (2) My city is not in their 3G roll-out list. So, that is not an option for me. AT&T’s HSDPA, however, is available in my area. So, I may need to consider moving over to them.
I think there may be a level of fatigue with providing Wi-Fi access because so many people are doing it. Since it is no longer unique, it is no longer a bigger draw, particularly combined with more 3G access.
What you probably need Todd, is for T-Mo to get their 3G rolled out and then tether a future T-Mo phone to your notebook; that or switch to AT&T. I have AT&T HDSPA access thanks to work, and I can say that a Bluetooth connection to my Tytnn from a Eee PC works very well.