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When I read on Daring Fireball that Starbucks was dropping T-Mobile as the carrier behind their hotspot service, I was overcome with annoyance, as this meant that the bundled hotspot service I get with my T-Mobile data plan would be next-to-worthless, and put me squarely back in a position of having to pay $20 per month for the same service. Fortunately, Daring Fireball’s brief note was a half-truth, which is detailed by WNN. In actuality, while T-Mobile is being dropped as Starbucks’ hotspot carrier in favor of AT&T, T-Mobile will be a “roaming partner”, which means that those of us on T-Mobile data plans will still have unlimited hotspot access at Starbucks locations across the country. Thank the digital gods for that, because it means that unlocked iPhones on T-Mobile are still a way better deal financially than keeping them attuned to AT&T’s over-billing of similar services.

While no mention of AT&T customers getting similar free wifi is mentioned, it’s interesting that Starbucks Card holders (the pre-paid cards available at all Starbucks stores) will get two free hours of wifi access each day, making them a near must-have for digerati on-the-go. This begs the question: rather than keeping one Starbucks Card active, can one double their daily online time by simply keeping two cards active, each with half the amount of money on them? Or, will Starbucks require a daily purchase for the online time to go into effect?

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