Free WiFi in Toronto

Welcome to the Hogtown Gossip Archive. Subscribe to our feed and enjoy!

I pay about $15 / month for cell phone services and that includes unlimited browsing. If I could rely on free Wi-Fi, I could take out the $10 + taxes off that, allowing me to use my cell phone at its full power for free. With that in mind, we shall look at all your options for getting free Internet in Hogtown (aka Toronto)..

Like it or not, wide availability of wireless access has become an indicator of a prosperous city. A few years ago, several USA municipalities tried, then failed to build city-owned full Wi-Fi coverage. Although the “market” providers had initially vanished or decided that it’s not economical to offer the service in smaller cities, as soon as these cities announced such projects they returned with a vengeance, offering such services at a loss to annihilate demand for the public option.

Meanwhile, as early as 2009, European cities such as Stockholm have been offering their residents just that with no problems:

Where in 2009?	Monthly cost	Uplink (Mbps)	Downlink (Mbps)
Stockholm	$11	100	100
Seoul	$24	100	100
Hong Kong	$35	100	100
Tokyo	$61	100	100
Amsterdam	$127	100	100
Lafayette, LA, Municipal	$58	50	50
Lafayette, LA, Cox Cable	$140	5	50
US, where available, Verizon	$145	20	50

There is a project with similar goals in Toronto, but it will never match what is happening in Stockholm and it seems to be nearly abandoned. Meanwhile, Toronto teachers’ unions express concern about Wi-Fi in schools, while the Government shrugs it off. (Truth be told, there is at least one easily replicable Dutch study showing that Wi-Fi coverage has a negative effect on vegetation, preventing growth.) Since then, some school boards (such as Peel region) have introduced Wi-Fi in every school, while TTC and Go are reportedly working on it, with no ETS.

University of Toronto as well as York offer Wi-Fi only for their staff and students. Toronto Public Library also offers free wifi at its various locations, but only when they are open: M-F 9-6 and Sat 10-6. Some have extended hours, from 8:30am-8pm but that’s rather the exception. You may find more exact info in the TPL link below. Support comes from their provider, Spyders, who also offer a toll-free number: 1-888-855-3555. The service tends to be overloaded most of the time, to the point where it’s hardly ever usable. Towifi.info is a homegrown/grassroots project, but when we visited it the map did not load.

Even Tim Hortons, with its reputation of get your poison and leave reputation has joined McDonalds and Starbucks in offering it at its full locations (Timothy’s World Coffee, Second Cup, Burger King, Subway, Williams coffee pubs and even Apple stores, Sandwich, Mr. Sub,  are offering it as well):

“We’re looking at the needs of our different types of guests,” said Morelli, “not just the soccer moms and seniors who we’re popular with, but also students and business people who stop in our restaurants.” (David Morelli, Tim Hortons director of public affairs)

Starbucks has long had wireless, and McDonalds offers the free service in over 1,000 locations in Canada.

Erik Thoresen, director of research and consulting at Technomic, an American food consulting firm, says it was only a matter of time before Tim Hortons introduced Wi-Fi.

“It has become table stakes for any restaurant who wants to stay competitive,” he said.

With no institutional support, and with the WiGLE database confined to US only, we are forced to collect info from various and disparate projects. The Hotspot locations database has only 7 entries for Toronto:

WiFiCafeSpots is an app that will display a map rather than a list. It’s a pay app available on all the major platforms showing such location in many countries. For each location, it shows even “power outlet access.”

Another international project that might help in finding free WiFi is Fon. If you have a Fon router and share & sell your Internet to strangers, you can in turn share into other members Internet. You can find a link to their map below as well as to their Android app. (I actually have a Fon router that I’m thinking of selling.)

RestoToronto has over 40 results of restaurants with WiFi in their database when searching Toronto – quite possibly, the most comprehensive list of such restaurants.

BlogTO has a list of 8 hotels that offer free Wi-Fi and 9 with wireless internet mostly in the lobby alone:

Everywhere

1. The Drake Hotel (1150 Queen St. W) - free WiFi everywhere in the building, plus a laptop guests can borrow and a workstation.
2. The Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen St. W) - free WiFi everywhere in the building.
3. Radisson Admiral (249 Queen's Quay W.) - free WiFi everywhere in the building.
4. Hilton Garden Inn (92 Peter St.) - all rooms including the business centre have complimentary WiFi and printing privileges.
5. Hotel Le Germain (30 Mercer St.) - free WiFi everywhere in the building.
6. Hotel Victoria (56 Yonge St.) - complimentary WiFi everywhere in the building, no need for username/passwords, just click-and-go.
7. Novotel (45 The Esplanade) - free WiFi everywhere in the building.
8. Windsor Arms (18 St. Thomas St) - free WiFi in guest rooms and common areas.

Limited

1. Cambridge Suites (15 Richmond St. E) - No free WiFi with deluxe suite, with a cityscape suite WiFi is included. WiFi is free at the business centre for anyone as long as you have your room key.
2. Four Seasons Toronto (21 Avenue Road) - $15 for 24 hours of in-room WiFi, the business centre located on 4th floor is complimentary.
3. Park Hyatt (4 Avenue Road) - All rooms in the north tower offer free WiFi including the lobby roof top lounge and all meeting rooms. In the south tower there's free internet but you have to plug in because it's considered a heritage building (not exactly the hotel's fault).
4. Le Meridien King Edward (37 King St. E) - WiFi is free in the lobby, otherwise the cost depends on the package - they start at $13.95 for 24 hours.
5. Marriott Bloor (90 Bloor St. E) - WiFi in the lobby is free, in-room it's $13.60 for 24 hours. Free for Marriott Rewards members.
6. One King West (1 King St. W) - complimentary WiFi in the lobby, $9.95 per night in the guest rooms.
7. Renaissance Hotel (1 Blue Jays Way) - WiFi in the lobby is free, $12.95 per night in the guest rooms.
8. InterContinental (220 Bloor St. W) - Free WiFi with a Club Room. Otherwise $9.95 per 24 hours. To use the business centre you have to buy a pre-paid card that is $3 for 10 minutes. Free if you upgrade to a Club Room.
9. Sheraton Centre Toronto (123 Queen St. W) - Internet in the room is wired only - $14.95 per night, Internet cafe in the lobby allows 30 minutes free at a time.

We have decided to try to collect all such Wi-Fi Hotspots in a list. You can enter your known and confirmed hotspots in an open form.

You may also wardrive yourself, or transform secured hotspots into free ones (though that is most likely illegal). These days you may even wardrive with your Android phone and a USB adapter running BT5.

Sources / More info: cbc-banwifi, uoft, tpl,  cbc-wifischools, cbc-mcguinty, ts-wifigo, hl-to, ts-tim, ts-starbucks, wificafe, fon-app, fon-maps, restoto, blogto, indigo-plum, wiki-muni, wrd-ore

Overheard in Hogtown, wifi, wireless, freebie, Wi-Fi, internet, online

Thank you for reading! If you liked this article, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or via email. Here you'll find the latest news in entertainment, celeb gossip and scandals, all presented from an original angle. Don't be shy, subscribe!