O2 to serve up free Wi-Fi to coffee chain

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 …

[Andrew James]

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.

[Nigel Brown]

Do the maths

A medium skinnychocamochadecaffadoodah is what, £2.30 ish? Almost £5 an hour for 'free' wi-fi?

No thanks, I'll stick to Cafe Nero, you only need 8 stamps to qualify for a free coffe there as opposed to several hundreds of points at Costa Packet. 3G coverage will do for me whilst out and about.

[DuncanL]

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!

[Norphy]

Re: Do the maths

Admittedly I do prefer Nero's but whenever my GF and I go into a Costa, she always manages to get a cup of tea there, usually English Breakfast which is about as basic as you can for tea.

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't help but wonder if this is how they're planning on competing with 4G networks that are on the horizon here, without spending huge chunks of money.

Telefónica aren't exactly rich right now and the idea of having to spend a small fortune replacing everything on top of spectrum auctions just to stay competitive might be rather daunting.

[Secretive Agent]

ALL Costa stores

On Facebook Costa state that ALL of their stores will eventually benefit from free wifi:

"Coffee lovers.. Are you yearning for Internet in our stores? Yes? Then these news will excite you. O2 has partnered up with Costa Coffee and will provide free wifi in all Costa stores across the country. Roll-out has already started and will continue throughout the year. Exciting, huh? :)"

Incidentally, Nigel, you require nine stamps at Caffe Nero to claim a free coffee, not eight.

[Ivan Headache]

Coffee stores?

And here's me thinking they were normal shops.

[Graham 25]

maybe they could allow O2 users .....

to access the site to replace the removal of access to "The Cloud" and for the parlous state of the Openzone access spots there days.

I call Openzone 'CloseZone' these days as the vast majority of their hotspots clutter up your wifi choices, and are either not actually connected to the internet, or are chargeable, so one has to set devices to forget Openzone.

[Dick Emery]

Waste of time

I was in McDonals the other day and just out of curiousity decided to put their free wifi (also supplied by O2) to the test. I got the landing page and was aksed for my mobile number. I put it in and it said I would get the auth code in a text message. A few minutes later....nothing. I tried again. Again nothing. I gave up and left. Later that evening several hours later I received a text message with the code. Fat lot of use that was. I wonder if I can now use that code if I got to ANY McDonalds. What's the betting I cannot or it has a timeout after 30 minutes?

[Anonymous Coward]

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?

[scub]

Re: Coffee bloody shops!

I think your right. Maybe coffees the new smoking.

Are there any movie stars doing it yet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Free Wi-Fi

Even when I was still on 02, the bloody thing never worked properly. Openzone? Closezone more like!