O2 to serve up free Wi-Fi to coffee chain
Won't Costa penny, arf, arf
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O2 is to equip the Costa chain of coffee shops with free Wi-Fi.
But the cellco said the service, which is gratis no matter what mobile operator you use, is limited to 30 minutes' access.
Costa said that's typically how much time punters spend over their lattes and and pain aux raisins, but folk who want to surf for longer can get free unlimited access if they sign up for Costa's Coffee Club, the chain's free-to-join collect-points-for-free-drinks loyalty scheme.
O2 didn't say how many of Costa's 1300 shops will get its hotspots. The roll-out has started in London, and will continue through 2012, but O2 and Costa would only say the partnership will benefit "many" customers.
O2 is pushing its high-street Wi-Fi landgrab aggressively. In March, it said it was equipping 1600 O'Neill's, Nicholson's, All Bar One, Brown's, Harvester and Toby Carver eateries and boozers with free wireless internet access.
Last month, O2 displaced BSkyB-owned The Cloud from 1200 McDonalds fast-food joints. ®
COMMENTS
Half an hour WAS how long the average punter spent sipping their coffee, until free WiFi distracted them from their coffee, and hten it became 30 minutes of facebook & twitter and 5 minutes gulping down a cold coffee and rushing back to work after the free internet stopped working.
Coffee bloody shops!
If ever there was a clever marketing ploy to extract money from posing twats, the rise of the coffee shop is it.
Sat in Piccaddilly train station a week or so ago, I started idly counting the number of 'suits' rushing past, ostentateously clutching large brown paper cup with lid on top. T'would have been easier to count those who weren't carrying one. I see the same thing at work, where half the people there seem incapable of walking in through the front door and starting work, without a paper cup of 'Frappo-Twatto Latte' or somesuch, clutched in their paw.
At what stage did the morning 'cuppa' change from being something you drunk out of your favourite mug, over the breakfast table and turn into a "look how busy and dynamic I am, everyone!" public display of painful trendiness?
Re: Do the maths
On a totally un-tech related rant; Costa is useless for non-coffee drinkers getting dragged in by friends - they don't even do basic tea (at least in the couple I've been in).
Caffè Nero, on the other hand do the mighty fine sugar-fest that is a Chai Latte.
Vivat Nero!
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