Here’s the instructions to use AT&T’s free iPhone Wifi at Starbucks:
Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone
Select “attwifi” from the list of available networks
Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap ‘continue’
You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.
The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested.
Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.
Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot.
Why bother?
Some executive with his necktie too tight decided that wi-fi is a commodity that people are desperate for and will pay to use. Thus, when there’s a promotion offering free wi-fi, they have to create convoluted ways to provide it that put up as many roadblocks as possible — don’t want ineligible people to possibly use a few minutes of wi-fi when waiting for a $5 cup of coffee!
It’s always the big corporations that fail to understand customer loyalty and rewarding the customer rather than fleecing them. Here in San Jose at Crema coffee, there’s free wi-fi — the password is on a flyer posted inside. At Mission City Coffee, there’s free wi-fi that just appears on your phone or laptop, no password needed. When I stay at small non-corporate motels, there’s free wi-fi blanketing the place. At a big expensive Hilton, they charge you $39 a day despite the higher price of the room.
I’m not saying that free wi-fi is a right, I’m just saying that these companies are masters at making their customers feel unwanted, fleeced, nickeled and dimed to death.
