Filed under: iTS, Wireless
In the world of wireless networking, there are big secrets and little secrets. For a great rundown on the obvious and hidden implications of the
AT&T/Starbucks WiFi deal, you should check out
Glenn Fleishman's piece at TidBITS. Glenn sussed out the various flavors of AT&T's offering, mused about the implications of WiFi ubiquity for the anticipated 3G
iPhone, and tried to track down the deal for Starbucks card holders; it's still not clear exactly how the "2 hours of access" arrangement will work, but the expectation is that anyone with a Starbucks card that gets used (to make a purchase) once a month will be able to connect for up to two hours a day during that month.
Things got really interesting, however, when Glenn talked to Starbucks CTO Chris Bruzzo about the AT&T deal. Bruzzo strongly implied that Starbucks retail locations are caching
iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store content for
sales to iTunes, iPhone and iPod touch users in-store, rather than having to backhaul the content from Apple. Glenn quotes Bruzzo, "Right now in our stores that have the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, you go and buy the song that's playing directly overhead, and see how fast it transfers." If Starbucks is populating hundreds of Wi-Fi Store-enabled locations with edge servers to speed content delivery for music, wouldn't it make sense to do the same for the yet-huger TV show and movie files that are zipping about? At that point, Starbucks becomes a loading zone for both caffeine and content. Fill 'er up!
Update: Apparently there's some confusion over 'edge servers.' To clarify, I don't mean EDGE as in AT&T's 2.5G wireless network, I mean
edge as in the edge of a network, a razor, or of night. Apple's investment in and longtime use of
Akamai shows that it understands the value of having content decentralized across the network.
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