A bunch of ‘coffee people’ became happy yesterday, when Starbucks announced it would be partnering with AT&T to provide free WiFi. Starbucks has said that about 7,000 locations nationwide will carry the new service. Will small cafes hurt due to Starbucks offering free WiFi. We believe so.

Ok so is it really free? Well sort of, you get two hours free, but only if you buy coffee with a Starbucks card. This doesn’t seem to bad to us, though: you’ll just have to put your espresso money on a gift card instead of cash. After using WiFi for two hours, you can buy additional hours at a rate of $3.99 an additional two hours, and the unlimited monthly plan is $20. Existing AT&T customers, will be able to use the new Starbucks hotspots for free.

T-Mobile is getting the boot, but if you already bought a T-Mobile plan, AT&T is allowing existing customers to use their accounts on the new hotspots.

Via Switched