T-Mobile Sues Starbucks over WiFi Rollout

The new Starbucks/at&t wifi partnership has left T-Mobile out in the cold feeling like the third wheel. So pissed is T-Mobile that they have opted to sue Starbucks even thought they admit to unwinding the wifi partnership with the coffee giant this year anyway.

Seems Starbucks new “Free Wifi” promotion breaches agreements made between the three parties and T-Mobile is trying to salvage revenue through the rest of the year to meet its projected revenue.

It really is a shame to see these poor telecoms fighting over the opportunity to offer free services isn’t it? I mean Starbucks intends to provide free bandwidth so I don’t see the downside. Its really just another walled garden philosophy that will be the downfall to all closed source operators in the coming years but I hold a special place in my heart for telecoms.

Why?

Because these effer’s have been screwing you and me for three decades now. Slowing technology and opportunity advancements by keeping their platforms closed, useless multiple technologies (GSM, CDMA, Iden) instead of choosing one standard like Europe did (GSM), and the the worst customer service experience in the business world over the last thirty years!

So I say Amen, and Amen, and Amen, because that’s what you say at a funeral. The U.S. Supreme Court has dashed a bid by T-Mobile and AT&T to stave off a class-action lawsuit challenging the carriers’ policies against unlocking mobile phones. Meanwhile, Verizon and Sprint, both CDMA carriers, have agreed to provide the software code to unlock cellphones after customers nationwide have completed their original contract. All this while small telecoms in local markets offer “All You Can Eat” packages for voice and data for less than $40. The lawsuit and local competition will do to wireless what number portability couldn’t, force the telecom operators to start behaving like data providers of the 21st century or die.