SBC Communications’ Wi-Fi
available at 600 Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide, as
it continues its partnering strategy.
Bibliophiles can pay $3.95 for a single two-hour session or buy an annual
membership with unlimited access to all 5,000 SBC Wi-Fi hot spots for
$19.95 per month.
Destiny Belknap, an SBC spokeswoman, said the company has a revenue sharing
agreement with the book chain but declined to disclose specifics.
Barnes & Noble originally chose Cometa for its hotspots
but the deployment was apparently never completed after the network operator
ran into financial trouble.
For retailers, the importance of Wi-Fi is mostly an amenity, not a
money maker by itself. Customers who stay longer in stores will likely buy
more books, magazines and CDs.
In a nod to business travelers, the telecom carrier also announced that its
Wi-Fi offering will be available in 88 Avis Rent A Car airport locations by
early 2005.
The SBC-Avis partnership comes after Wayport said it will install
50 hotspots at Hertz airport locations in the United States for customers
picking up or dropping off a rental vehicle.
With today’s announcements, SBC’s FreedomLink Wi-Fi networks is now available in
5,000 locations. The company has set a goal of 20,000 hotspots by 2006.