I was reading Techdirt’s article on “Starbucks Managers Begging To Free Up The WiFi” and was surprised to find out that WiFi is not free in Starbucks America. Here, in Malaysia it’s totally free. I usually (ahem) freeload when I pass a Starbucks by using my PDA to download my GMail via pop to read later offline. To be fair, I’ve also spend many hours in Starbucks drinking expensive coffees, doing serious online work there.

Starbucks already charges overpriced kopi-o here and if they charge for WiFi too that’d be the end of Starbucks in Malaysia. Even my regular mamak stall got Wifi :)

I guess that’s why Starbucks is slashing 600 jobs in the US. It’s hard to compete when other shops are giving out free WiFi.

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