Troll-man:

You are missing the fact that the 300 minutes for $50 can be used over many months....It's been taking me several months to use it up.

The point is convenient, cheap access where I didn't have to think about the cost because I could just go in, get email, and log off, using up time in 10 minute chunks. With their previous rules, I could have 30 trips of less than 10 minutes with that plan - that will cost me $300 now (at $10 minutes per pop) or about $120 (3 prepaid months).

This just made the service unusable and Starbucks should be worried. They will see their usage (and associated visits) drop like a stone.