AT&T is slowly rolling out free wifi to iPhone customers at Starbucks locations across the country and people are happy about it. When this was first announced a few months back, I was really excited because I knew that it was the first step in throwing T-Mobile under the bus and finding a provider that would provide free wifi to Starbucks customers.

At the end of the day Starbucks needed to partner with companies like Apple and AT&T to regain their technological relevance. It wasn’t long ago that Starbucks rolled out nationwide wifi and was celebrated as one of the forces that moved wifi from the niche market to something standard on all laptops. Starbucks is in a different position now but without a doubt their current partners will help them return to their past success.