At the beginning of June 2010, every Starbucks location in the USA, through AT&T, made their WiFi access free to all. The problem with this was that Canada has Starbucks locations too and the free access was never announced here.
At the time, Starbucks locations in Canada are run through Bell. Users can receive 2 hours for free by signing up for an account or opt to pay for access. Alternatively, if you have an iPad with a Bell SIM card or an iPhone through a Bell contract, you receive free WiFi access.
Well, effective July 1, 2010, Starbucks has now changed its policy and is offering free WiFi access to Canada as well. Starbucks seems to have reached a deal with Bell and WiFi is now accessible through a single-click sign-in with no time limits. 100%, totally free WiFi.
Whether you are a Bell customer, have an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Blackberry, or whatever other device you can think of, it does not matter. Free WiFi for all!
Win!
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very awesome. Might hang out there alot more often!
Its about time.
Wow nice, Here in the surrey/Vancouver area there is a Starbucks on nearly every block lol
This will be great for business, and for us. I wonder if the lucky few who live in apartment buildings near will score free Internet lol
There went my main reason for bothering with a Bell 3G micro SIM in my iPad! Also, my one month trial of Bell makes me want to go back to Rogers with my tail between my legs. The Bell customer service has been lousy, you can't renew your data each month automatically yet (mine died this morning and I just gave up after 20 minutes on hold trying to reach a human to add another month…not available via internet yet), and also Bell reception on my iPad has been much worse than the reception on my iPhone with Rogers. So bye bye Bell and hello free WiFi at Starbucks. Now if they could just stop burning their coffee!
I dont get it, is it still for Bell customers or for anyone?
awesome! if my house is near a starbucks, i can have access to internet without paying anything, right?
LOL!!! I hate their coffee but would be more thanhappy to go buy my Timmies and go park in Starbucks parking lot to get their free wifi – that's what I did at Second Cup (free for Rogers users)!!
Bell was supposed to have on-device account management by end of June. Now it's pushed to “sometime in July”. 🙁 Agree totally that despite their claims of improvement, Bell's customer service still sucks! (though Rogers is every bit as bad, they just have their on-device system working). At least for me though, I totally disagree about the networks. Bell's is both faster and more pervasive for me. For that reason, warts and all, I'll stick with Bell. Hopefully they'll get their iPad management working soon!
Anyone
Anyone. It's hosted by bell, but it's just a general wifi hotspot
Sent from my iPad
So it has the same free WiFi as the independent cool coffee shops that I go to, minus the excellent coffee? Only what…8 years behind.
Haha sounds like you hate Starbucks. At least their drinks are consistent.
great! another reason to just buy the wifi only iPad ^^
Finally, a reason to go to Starbucks.
Haha no doubt. Last time my jaw nearly hit the ground when my wife
ordered a specialty hot chocolate that came just shy of $5. Couldn't
believe it. I even told the girl “no no, just 1” she looked at me like
I was nuts because I didn't know the price lol
LOL!!!!
so Canadian. I love it.
Geez they could have got to Staples and bought a Linksys Router for $89 and there's your free WiFi. Easy.
Is that your favourite type of router?
…now we have to work on Timmys getting free WiFi !! That's real coffee and I don't have to remortgage the house to buy one!!!
Works like a charm on my Rogers iPhone 3GS and wifi only iPad at the starbucks in Vaughan mills. Yeah for bell/starbucks!
thanks for the feedback! enjoy!
I love surfing in Starbucks, But dear, i’ve seen a post saying free wi-fi isn’t safe at all.
check this post for me please.
http://mftown.com/2010-07/free-wi-fi-challenges-safety-specialist/