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10 Comments

news

WiFi Why?

By Sarah Lazarovic

profile_img1_rogers.gifRogers plans to charge $9 per hour for WiFi service at a handful of Second Cup outlets. It’s a bid to generate more revenue for their wireless division. And it’s stupid. $9 an hour is about the price of a recently-reduced movie ticket. $9 is a good burger at a bar and grille with faux-vintage signage. And $9 is a used CD that reminds you of high school. $9 is not a reasonable amount of money to charge for internet access, access that people can get for free in many a cafe or street corner.
A question has long been looming in Canada, especially among the big four mobility carriers, as to whether or not they can make a go of a pay-per-use model. But outlandish prices like these make one realize that we can’t expect a fair pay-per-use model when greed resonates. If TOist needs WiFi, we will certainly be drinking coffee elsewhere.

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Comments

  • http://valeriegagnon.blogspot.com VBG

    Awful! Ridiculous! The day I bought my wireless internet kit…

  • http://zydecofish.blogspot.com/ zydecofish

    i imagine they will learn their lesson when no one takes advantage of the service. free would be good.

  • Yermum

    Asinine. The most expensive hotel high-speed access is cheaper.
    Idiots.
    Rock on Timothy’s. Christ, even BURGER KING has free wifi.

  • billonlogan

    As a subscriber to both Rogers cable and hi-speed internet, I was expecting a better deal, say $9/day. They got it all wrong at Rogers when it comes to making money on wi-fi.

  • http://torontoist.com sarah

    exactly. the carriers already have a built-in advantage when customers subscribe to wifi. the hotspots around town could be billed to those accounts for a reasonable hourly fee, or towards a monthly plan that allowed for a certain numbers of roaming wifi hours per month. but $9 an hour is totally absurd, and makes one not want to give them any business at all.

  • http://boyreporter.blogspot.com Ron Nurwisah, Boy Reporter

    Ah Rogers…. the mini-me of evil media companies. They try to be evil and monopolistic ie. News Corp or Microsoft but instead they just look really silly and boneheaded.
    If they were really smart they’d learn from the drug industry (the heroin, cocaine kind, not the Vioxx, Celebrex kind) and give away the first one for free.

  • http://toronto.1051am.com travis

    i thought they did give it away for free for a bit. but seriously who’s going to pay that much for internet.

  • http://www.foxymoron.org/blog Andrea

    Eff the Cup. It’s all about Jet Fuel: free wi-fi for hours—not to mention superiour lattes and atmosphere.

  • http://www.cynthiagould.com Cynthia Gould

    It’s ridiculous, but watch some people pay for it!
    If I charge you $50 for a glass of tap water and you buy it, who is more to blame for the wackiness?

  • WaltDe

    Keep up the great work on your blog. Best wishes WaltDe