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Going to a coffee shop for wireless internet has just become a battle royale á la the Jets and the Sharks. Last week, Starbucks announced it would offer two hours of free Wi-Fi to its Canadian customers—a feature the Americans have had since a new incentive program Starbucks Rewards was offered in April 2008. Bell will also offer unlimited service to its high-speed and WiMAX customers—and in a cruel move, not Bell dial-up customers. The new Bell deal must be a response to Rogers including unlimited free wireless access at its Hotspots for iPhone users, which includes every Second Cup in town.
While Second Cup and Starbucks have offered Wi-Fi service for years, the cost model has always leaned towards laptop users: customers can choose to purchase internet for an hour, a day, or a month. However, the explosion of Wi-Fi enabled smartphones changes the use of Wi-Fi: checking an email, using GPS, or finding a telephone listing takes minutes. Here's a catch: in the States, the internet period is limited to a single session. Once you log off, you're done for the day. We wonder if Bell will make the session cumulative or if the telco will follow suit. (Doesn't it appears that telcos plan to take advantage of the changing market to manipulate Wi-Fi at the major coffee chains to become marketing tools for products like the iPhone or WiMax?)
This might be a good time to remind you, then, that many cafés across the city offer free unlimited Wi-Fi to everyone, places like Aroma near Bloor and Bathurst; Linuxcaffe at Harbord and Grace; Urbana Coffee at Bay and St. Joseph; and at selected Lettieris, such as the one at Church and Wellesley. When a place like Woody's offers unlimited free Wi-Fi for all, the major coffee chains are leaving a bitter taste in our mouths.
Photo by au ro.
| CORRECTION: AUGUST 19, 2008
This article mistakenly suggested that only certain Bell customers were able to get free Wi-Fi at Canadian Starbucks locations, in contrast to American stores where all Starbucks Rewards customers received two hours per day of free Wi-Fi. In fact, both Canadian and American customers with Starbucks Rewards cards can get the two hours of complimentary Wi-Fi, regardless of their ISP. |
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Since I've only just left the ranks of the "poor grad students" in Toronto and moved on to an equally non-lucrative post-doctoral fellowship, free WiFi hotspots are a treasure to find. Another great coffee shop with free wireless is Wall Street, just east of Yonge on Carlton. It's become a quick favourite for me and a few of my colleagues. Friendly staff and comfy seats--just be sure to bring an extension cord if you want to have any hope of plugging in for the afternoon.
(And while you're there, the cinnamon buns are scrumptious! Yum!)
you guys should write a letter to the president of starbucks and bell telling them that you are appalled that they are not giving you something for nothing and that we're not like americans!
wahhhhhhhhhhH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bell still has dial-up customers?
The Bell deal with Starbucks is interesting given the close relationship between Starbucks and the iPhone in the States...
I was in England a couple of months ago, and you had to pay 5 pounds an hour to use WiFi in a Starbucks. Ridiculous!
dial-up still exists?
Also with free WiFi- The awesome Beaver Cafe on Queen West.
this would be one of those compelling reasons to depend on independent coffee shops. The Telcos aren't going to go door-to-door, trying to persuade individual coffee shops to sign on with a plan like this, it only makes sense to sit down and ink a deal with 500 shops at once...
the sad thing is that this news item, along with any other news story involving bell or rogers, is that it points relentlessly down the same laneway: bitchy decisions to maximize profit to the reckless detriment of the reputation of your brand.
And companies wouldn't still be making such unpleasant decisions if they couldn't get away with it. But, they can.
they do.
Who needs coffee shops?
Every library now has free WiFi, free daily newspapers ...free water fountains as well!
We live in a city disproportionately dominated by coffee chains, and we as a city seem to be a-ok with this. The sheer ratio of independently-owned cafés is, in a metropolis of this size, abysmal. The indie places reflect the character of the locality, and too often that place is actually a Timmies or Second Cup or Starbucks (which certainly have their place, just not everyfreakingwhere).
Whenever I'm in the right neighbourhood (where an independently-owned place is situated), I'll eagerly drop in to one of our good coffee joints, wifi or not. If I have my lappy, great, but I've already spent years revelling in the novelty of wifi coffee places. These days, I go to meet with friends, have a good cuppa, or get research work done. If I want to wifi to my heart's content, I can go to the library or home.
Incidentally, a number of the indie coffee places I used to frequent before moving here found that free wifi kept leechers/seat hogs around who would buy a cup of drip and then just occupy a table for the next six or ten hours. Eventually, these places came up with "wifi blackout" hours so that their paying patrons (and regulars who got pushed out by the leechers) could find a place to sit.
And Svend's right. If you look around, gratis wifi is around if you just look for it (or ask around).
why do people need to sit in starbucks on their computers? the laptop user is so ubiquitous in starbuckses and other coffee shops, but seriously, how is this better than sitting in your own home? if you're going in there to just stick in your earbuds and type away, you might as well just have gotten your coffee to go and gone home. or to a library.
seriously, can someone explain this to me? i mean other than if you're meeting someone, or killing time checking your e-mail or whatever, why have coffee shops become fucking homework rooms?
honestly, i don't really care, it doesn't affect me one bit; i just want to know if someone can give me an explanation as to why it's necessary to sit in a coffee shop on your computer.
i just feel like a café is the type of place where you go to be social, and have a coffee and a conversation. granted, i suppose people do go in and sit alone and read the paper or something, which could be perceived as just as bad, but i doubt people do that for extended periods of time a la these coffee shop laptop jockeys. and newspapers don't get people riled up about unsatisfactory wi-fi offerings.
kudos to nib for asking the question! haha.
I agree...actually, it's a little disappointing to me when I go to a coffee shop with a friend to sit for a coffee and there are no tables because all you poor grad students are hogging the tables with your laptops and long-empty coffee cups.
it's funny how something like free WiFi, at least in this country, comes to be thought of as some kind of right, or a thank you from the coffee company for sitting there and using up their space...like they need your business.
Stop complaining and cough up a couple bucks for the access, or go somewhere else.
While there are some things that are more important than free internet—say, better coffee, cheaper prices, friendlier service—it doesn't take away from the growing desire for free Wi-Fi. The situation at the coffee shops parallels the data usage situation in Canada—the telcos are exploiting it. This argument, I suspect, is a local one: in Vancouver, most of the chains provide free wireless, so people can work, surf, do whatever they need to. When, if ever, would we get something similar?
I'm on Wireless Toronto access from the Rustic Cosmo Cafe in Parkdale right now - there's lots of free Wi-Fi to be found in the city, usually somewhere that means you don't have to give your money to Starbucks...
Check out a list or map of Wireless Toronto "hotspot" locations: http://wirelesstoronto.ca/wt_hotspot_locations.php
nib: I like being in public while being antisocial. I've never gone to a coffee shop to have a conversation. That's what bars and restaurants are for.
Last week, Starbucks announced it would offer two hours of free Wi-Fi to its Canadian customers—a feature the Americans have had since a new incentive program Starbucks Rewards was offered in April 2008. But while AT&T offers the service to any customer with a registered Starbucks card in the States, Bell will only offer the service to its high-speed and WiMAX customers—and in a cruel move, Bell dial-up customers will still have to pay to surf the web at the café.
Perhaps I'm misreading you here but I think you're confused. *Everyone* with a registered Starbucks card can get free wireless internet access for two (continuous) hours per day. In a completely separate program, Bell is offering some of their customers free *unlimited* wireless access at any Starbucks. Replace "Bell" with "AT&T" and you get the exact same situation as in the States.
Jet Fuel has free Wi-Fi, but of course the Torontoist isn't a big fan of Jet Fuel, since it isn't enough like Starbucks...
http://torontoist.com/2007/12/villain_jet_fue.php
Thanks for the link McKingford, I'll make sure I avoid it.
You mean Karen Whaley isn't a big fan of Jet Fuel, McKingford. Surely you're smart enough to understand that individual writers' opinions are not shared by a staff of several dozen.
Whatever happened to warchalking?
Also, Suomynona is right about the free Wi-Fi—I've just appended a correction to the article above, and we're reworking the article right now. Our apologies.
Oh, to make an error in a post with the word Er-ror in the title.
If you insist on using "we" instead of "I" it's understandable (though annoying) when people think each author speaks for Torontoist.
@nib and others interested:
Students work in coffee shops because they will not do any work if they stay home. There are many distractions at home, and sitting in coffee shop kinda forces you to stay seated and stay on task (those anonymous others...). I used to do this, but I prefer being at home now.
I guess things have changed since I was at school - we used to sit in the various university cafeterias to exchange ideas, help each other out, etc...
What gets me about the lone laptop user is that they often buy 1 coffee over a three hour span (at least it seems this way) and they use up a whole table, that would seat three or four people, to themselves - and in this country it is seems considered a faux pas to ask if you can sit at the same table...
Not in Hong Kong. People just sit where there are available seats. There's nothing wrong with doing that here too, I say.
When a café is busy, taking up a whole table is bad manners. Move to the counter! Things make change with more people using smartphones and ultra-portable laptops that take up 1/3 the space.
I don't know, it was the Torontoist's "Heroes & Villains" segment, not Karen Whaley's...
Rek,
I agree. My friend does that too whenever he talks about the Welsh, Goths and Anarchists. Not that I care about any of those groups, it just bugs me when he declares his opinion and presents it to be a widely supported one.
@mister j
hmm, well, i work from home as a transcriber and it only took a few weeks for me to learn how to avoid the distractions of being at home with roommates. close messenger, silence your cell, close your door, and get'r done. you're not missing out on as much as you think.
surely these abilities can be developed over the course of four years of university. discipline, anyone?
although i do have a bit of extra motivation, that i'm being paid.
or you could try this.
anyways, i don't want to seem overly harsh about this, it's not even a big deal. go ahead, do your thing if you like working in a coffee shop!
whoops, i messed that link up.
let's try that again.
Dunno if it's too downmarket for some, but in the east end around me, most Coffee Times offer free wireless.