Starbucks recently made a deal with Google to offer their customers Wi-Fi connections that are considerably faster then they are today. Starbucks has been a long-time hang out spot and trendy temporary workspace for many around the world. However, those that choose this workspace option have been faced with limited connectivity speeds. From my personal experience in many of the different Starbucks stores, the current Wi-Fi seems to be noticeably unreliable and considerably slow. This change is going to most likely end up being a profitable business move for Starbucks to keep customers in their store longer which entices them to buy more coffee and food.

The new Wi-Fi service will start to make its entrance to more than 7,000 of its Starbucks locations within the next 18 months. The transition to this service will begin this month. The Wi-Fi service has been said to enable customers to surf the internet 10 times faster than the current service. So, if you are looking to download that movie, while streaming audio and sending a massive Excel spread sheet to your boss, you are in luck! Starbucks improvements will impact their clientele greatly and give a much better experience to all who visit and use their Wi-Fi network. Students and remote business entrepreneurs all have reacted very positively about this change.

So you are probably wondering. how do I know if my Starbucks has been upgraded? Kevin Lo, General Manager for Google Access says “We appreciate your patience if it’s still a little while before we get to your favorite Starbucks—you’ll know your new network is ready to go when you can log in to the ‘Google Starbucks’ SSID [service set identifier].”

Starbucks has always been an innovative company so this change comes as no surprise. By teaming with Google to offer a higher speed Wi-Fi they are securing their place as not just a place to get coffee, but a place to hang out and stay a while. This puts them head and shoulders above their competition and reinforces them as an American staple.