Next time you roll your eyes at the steep price of your morning cup of Starbucks, consider this—the cost of the drink includes your daily dose of caffeine and Starbucks Wi-Fi, which happens to be the fastest free Wi-Fi in the world. U.S. That’s right, Starbucks’ real winner isn’t their latte. This is their high speed internet.
According to Open Signal's U.S. Wi-Fi report, Starbucks' Wi-Fi speeds are more than twice as fast as those of its next closest competitor, McDonald's. So while these golden arches look tempting in the morning and cost a fraction of the price, be warned—half the price also means half the speed (i.e., the speed of Wi-Fi). Starbucks Wi-Fi has download speeds of 9.01 megabits per second, which is actually faster than the best 4G networks.
3G (the older version of LTE) has a speed of 1.36 Mbps, and HSPA+ (actually the newer version of LTE) has a speed of 4.31 Mbps. While AT&T, Verizon and company continue to step up their internet game, with 4G speeds reaching 6.52 Mbps, none of them can seriously compete with Starbucks. So don't be too proud - connect your phone to Starbucks' network while you're in the store.
In fact, Starbucks' download speeds make it perfectly capable of nearly every major web activity you can think of, which explains why the coffee giant sometimes looks more like a computer store than a coffee shop. According to the Federal Communications Commission's broadband speed guidelines, the minimum download speed required to stream high-definition video, video conferencing and even two-way gaming is just 4 Mbps, which is about the same as what McDonald's offers.
Starbucks then provides its Wi-Fi users with ample resources to surf the web and stream their favorite videos. And, as of 2012, Starbucks' Wi-Fi speeds are actually faster than the average Wi-Fi speeds in most states. A 2013 article from StateTech looked at average download speeds in every state and Washington, D.C. If Starbucks were a state, it would be in the top ten.
The state with the highest average download speeds is Delaware at 10.88 Mbps, followed by our nation’s capital at 10.75 Mbps. Starbucks ranked ninth on the list, just behind Utah and ahead of Washington State, with a speed of 9.01 Mbps. The state with the slowest internet speeds? Average download speeds were just 3.74 Mbps in Alabama and Arkansas, two states that no longer offer HD options in their video streams.
Of course, not all Starbucks Wi-Fi is created equal. Last July, Starbucks announced that it would abandon AT&T as its Internet provider and switch to Google. Kevin Lo, general manager of Google Access, said that 7,000 Starbucks stores in the United States will be transformed in the hope that "faster Internet will make customers' time at Starbucks more enjoyable and efficient," he told Forbes.
This decision proved to be a good one, as Starbucks customers using Google's network experienced nearly twice the speed as those using AT&T's network, which had a download speed of 5.13 Mbps.
Starbucks' internet speeds may be particularly attractive to travelers, who may not want to spend a fortune on a hotel room Wi-Fi connection. Most hotels force customers to pay for internet connections and therefore cannot compete with Starbucks in terms of speed. The Hilton won out among the hotels surveyed with download speeds of about 8.5 Mbps and cost $100 per night. That price tag is sure to make your caramel macchiato a little more palatable.
The most expensive hotel on the list, the Hyatt Regency, costs $110 per night, but has a download speed of only 4.5 Mbps. On the other hand, a Motel 6 room costs just $41, but forget about the Internet—its download speed is only 1.3 Mbps, barely enough for you to browse interactive web pages.
Of course, you don't have to go to Starbucks to use free Wi-Fi. Among other popular retailers that double as internet hotspots, McDonald's and Best Buy top the list. But after both leaders saw significant drops in download speeds, the next fastest company was Lowes, with download speeds of just 1.96 Mbps, well behind Best Buy's 3.9 Mbps. The worst of them all, Panera, only managed 1 Mbps.
So while your morning cup of Joe may not seem like a good deal, remember the added benefit of Starbucks coffee - it's all on the internet, and it's all so fast.
Image: Getty Images (3)
