Free O2 Wi-Fi to be rolled out in Costa stores across the UK
O2 has announced that it has agreed a partnership to provide Costa, the UK's largest coffee shop chain, with its market-changing Wi-Fi service. This partnership will see the coffee chain's 14 million monthly customers provided with free, fast, reliable and easy to use Wi-Fi.
The deployment has started in London this month to make sure stores are set up for festivities planned this summer across the capital. The roll out through 2012 will ensure many of the 700 cups of coffee served every minute across the UK will be accompanied by O2 Wi-Fi.
Through this partnership Costa will be able to offer many of its customers genuinely free Wi-Fi. O2 Wi-Fi is free for everyone, no matter which mobile or broadband provider they are with, addressing the shortcomings of current public Wi-Fi offerings. Customers only need to sign up once and can then use the simple and secure service in any Costa store, or at any of O2's Wi-Fi hotspots. All O2 Wi-Fi hotspots are premium public hotspots, as opposed to using residential connections with limited bandwidth.
Gavin Franks, MD of O2 Wi-Fi, stated: 'We are hugely excited to partner with Costa. Coffee shops are seen as the traditional heartland for public access Wi-Fi and Costa is the largest coffee chain in the UK. We have shown how our innovative models works in new contexts such as London Metro Wi-Fi and this deal shows that it also works in more traditional contexts. It shows that people and businesses want fast, reliable Wi-Fi that's easy to use and free no matter who you are.'
Kevin Hydes, marketing director for Costa UK, said: 'As people spend around half an hour in our stores, we are delighted to be partnering with O2 and providing our customers with 30minutes of free Wi-Fi. Our Coffee Club members will be rewarded with unlimited access to further enhance their coffee shop experience.'
This is the latest in a series of new partnerships with industry and sector leading brands for O2 Wi-Fi. In 2012, O2 Wi-Fi has already announced an additional 3,000 UK hotspots which are currently being deployed across the UK.
For O2 this represents a further step towards becoming a partner to the retail industry. Recently O2 announced the launch of O2 Wallet, which allows shopping and offers to be managed together. This complements Priority Moments which positions exceptional offers to O2's 22 million mobile customers and is in addition to O2 Media which delivers intelligent mobile advertising.
