Barnes & Noble Add Free Wi-Fi, AT&T Loses Another Paid Hot Spot

Barnes & Noble bookstores announced today they are offering free Wi-Fi access in an effort to boost awareness of their new e-book library ad upcoming e-book reader made by Plastic Logic. B&N has been steadily losing business, watching a majority of their usual loungers migrate over to areas like Coffee Bean, who have been offering free Wi-Fi at all location since last July. Since its debut in 2005, AT&T access has been subscription-based (and overprice), but on Tuesday the two companies announced that AT&T Wi-Fi has gone complimentary. Users with laptops, Wi-Fi equipped smartphones and other wireless devices can go online without paying a dime. We will see the hot-spot business shrink this year as more companies realize the power of the freemium off-line model. Offer something for free, someone will feel obligated to come try it out and buy something in return.