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Barnes & Noble said today it would offer free wireless Internet access at all its bookstores nationwide.

Barnes & Noble has offered Wi-Fi access via AT&T since 2005, but that was a subscription-based service.  Customers shopping in the bookstore will now be able to preview over 700,000 eBook titles along with thousands of public domain titles available from Google, on their Wi-Fi enabled devices.  The company says its number of eBook titles is on track to reach the one million mark soon.

Stephen Riggio
Barnes & Noble

"Barnes & Noble pioneered the concept of retail stores as community centers," said Steve Riggio, CEO of Barnes & Noble, Inc. "By providing no-fee Wi-Fi access, we are not only meeting our customers' needs, but extending the sense of community that has always been in our stores."

Mr. Riggio added, "This is a natural progression of our digital strategy to provide customers with more choices in how, when and where they want to read."

As part of the Wi-Fi offering, customers will soon be able to opt-in to receive personalized messages from Barnes & Nobel such as coupons, alerts on an author book signings and details on where to find a new book release.

Last week Barnes & Noble announced the launch of its own ebookstore and its forthcoming Plastic Logic e-reader that will compete with Amazon and its Kindle