October 1st, 2009
Borders partners with Verizon to offer free Wi-Fi in stores
In response to Barnes & Noble’s move this summer to offer free Wi-Fi in its stores via AT&T, Borders on Thursday announced that it has signed an agreement with Verizon to provide free Wi-Fi service in more than 500 stores nationwide.
The companies are “well underway” in the process of equipping stores to offer free Wi-Fi. Service is expected to be available by mid-October.
Borders has partnered with Elonex to offer its own e-book reader and e-book store in the U.K., but that product has not made it stateside just yet.
The other question: what will Borders do in light of the fact that Barnes & Noble plans to offer several brands of e-book readers?
Borders will use a splash page displayed at log on that serves as a portal for Borders to offer content (news, discounts, customer rewards, etc.)
The back end of the endeavor includes wide area networking and voice-over-IP services, Internet connectivity and e-commerce operations support.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Email Andrew Nusca 
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to The ToyBox via Email alerts or RSS.
