Books, coffee and now wireless web access at Borders

Bookstore cafes have been very successful in drawing customers into the store. Now there’s another reason for customers to hang out in those cafes: Borders Group Inc.’s Borders Books and Music stores will begin offering customers high-bandwidth wireless access to the Internet early next year.

Under an agreement with wireless provider T-Mobile USA Inc., Borders will offer a high-bandwidth wireless fidelity, or wi-fi, local area network at about 400 Borders Books and Music locations in the first quarter, starting in California.

"We see the addition of T-Mobile Hotspot wireless Internet service to our bookstores as a welcome extension to the shopping experience for our customers," said Tami Heim, president of Borders Stores and Borders Online. "In addition to offering books, music and movies, we invite our shoppers to read, meet with friends or even just unwind at Café Borders. Allowing our customers to do all those things and still stay connected to their world is a great addition to our service offering."

Borders Café visitors will be able to log onto the wi-fi network from any laptop or PDA configured for wireless web access. Users of most modern laptops and PDAs can make their devices capable of accessing a wi-fi network by simply inserting a PC card, which can usually be purchased at any consumer electronics store or web site for under $100. They’ll also have to subscribe to T-Mobile, at prices of $29.99 for local (single location) access or $49.99 for national access. T-Mobile also makes available pre-paid access at $20 for 120 minutes, and single-use access at $2.99 for 15 minutes.

T-Mobile, which is a unit of Germany’s Deutsche Telekom AG, has already rolled out wi-fi networks in more than 1,000 Starbucks coffeehouses.