In addition to the variety of toppings available for your morning latte, Starbucks Coffee Co. soon will be offering its customers high-speed wireless Internet access.
The Seattle-based coffee giant last week announced a five-year strategic relationship with Compaq Computer Corp. to provide its retail stores with wireless broadband access, as well as computers, storage devices and services. Compaq, which said it beat out archrival Dell Computers for the deal, will join software heavyweight Microsoft Corp. in creating the high-speed wireless environment in Starbucks locations across the country.
Under the agreement, Compaq will be the primary and preferred strategic provider for information technology infrastructure for Starbucks, such as enterprise-class servers and storage solutions, desktops and laptops and iPAQ personal digital assistant products.
“This agreement allows us to take advantage of Compaq’s incredible breadth and depth of technology and service offerings to continue to improve many aspects of our business,” said Darren Huston, senior vice president of New Ventures at Starbucks. “Working closely with Compaq and Microsoft on enterprise and consumer-facing innovations will ultimately help us improve store operations and enhance the experience of our customers.”
Starbucks said the network, which is expected to use MobileStar Network’s wireless network, should be available this summer in locations in Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco. The company also noted it still was working on a pricing plan for use of the network.
The wireless networking market also received a boost last week when backers of the HomeRF standard approved a proposal to increase data rates from its current 1 megabit per second to as much as 10 Mbps. The technology uses the 2.4 GHz unlicensed spectrum band, with frequency hopping capabilities to reduce the chance for interference.
The move was seen as important for the technology, which recently saw prominent backer Intel Corp. jump ship to rival technology 802.11b. The proposal also moves HomeRF’s data rates closer to 802.11b’s 11 Mbps.
Proxim Inc., a backer of HomeRF, said the 2.0 version of the technology will be compatible with the current generation.
“The new HomeRF 2.0 technology is a huge leap forward for home networking,” said David King, chairman, president and chief executive officer for Proxim. “This is the only networking technology, wired or wireless, that delivers high-quality data, voice and streaming media all at the same time.”
