Starbucks launches free wifi in Tokyo

Gone are the days when Starbucks was the only option for caffeine junkies in need of a latte fix in Tokyo. In fact, with all the really good coffee shops that have sprung up around town recently, we can't even remember the last time we suffered one of the ubiquitous chain's acrid, burnt-tasting cups of Joe. But it looks like there might be a reason to head back.

Starting today, July 2, Starbucks has rolled out free wifi at all of its shops in central Tokyo. Titled 'at_STARBUCKS_Wi2', the service is powered by KDDI and purports to offer faster data speeds than WiMAX, the current mobile internet option of choice for the nomad worker set. Just register an email address and password and you're set to go – in theory, at least.

Sadly, our attempts to get connected at our nearest 'Bucks on launch day came to nought. While the registration page is available in English as well as Japanese, you'll either need to sign up in advance or have a smartphone with you, because it can't be done using the free wifi service instore. Fortunately, we were able to connect via an Android hotspot instead, but after managing to register we still couldn't get the at_STARBUCKS_Wi2 service to work. The problem? We'd been assigned a 169 IP address, the surefire sign of a router in need of a reboot.

On explaining this to the staff, they sweetly admitted that they didn't really know what was going on with all of this wifi business either, and suggested calling the hotline instead. Er... maybe next time, eh?

Update: When one of our colleagues returned to the same branch of Starbucks later in the day, the free wifi service was up and running.

Starbucks is planning to offer free wifi at all shops in Japan by the end of the year. See the English-language at_STARBUCKS_Wi2 page for more information