Rogers is shutting down the Shaw WiFi hotspot network on July 21, ending public access to thousands of hotspots across Western Canada—and Freedom Mobile customers will feel the impact.
A banner on the Shaw internet Wi-Fi website reads: “Rogers WiFi Hotspots will no longer be available starting July 21.”
The shutdown affects Freedom Mobile users because the carrier, once owned by Shaw, used the same hotspot network to offer free public Wi-Fi access. Since Rogers acquired Shaw in 2023, those hotspots now fall under Rogers’ control—and they’re going to be retired next month due to low usage. Rogers said demand has “decreased dramatically”.
Freedom Mobile, now owned by Quebecor’s Videotron, is phasing out hotspot access entirely and pointing customers to its growing 5G+ network instead, according to an email sent to customers today. The company says its 3800 MHz rollout in B.C., Alberta, and Ontario supports speeds over 1 Gbps, compared to the old 100 Mbps cap on Shaw’s hotspots.
To prepare for the change, Freedom has updated its roaming Fair Usage Policy and service agreements. Many Freedom Mobile customers noted on Reddit the shut down will affect indoor coverage for some, where cell signals weren’t available and Shaw Wi-Fi was the backup for connectivity.
Years back when smartphone plans had paltry data buckets (like 500MB), ‘ShawOpen’ hotspots were widely available for free in popular public spaces to its TV, phone and internet customers. Your iPhone could automatically connect to the hotspots when in range, saving you from data overages. After Rogers acquired Shaw, many customers started seeing the ‘RogersOpen’ hotspots showing up and many Shaw Go WiFi hotspots not automatically connecting or working properly as before. Now, it seems these free hotspots are done, ending the Shaw era of free public Wi-Fi.
Meanwhile, Rogers says free public Wi-Fi is still available at over 20,000 locations across Western Canada. As a courtesy, 3GB of bonus data is being added to Rogers’ Basic BYOD plan for the small number of customers who still used the hotspots.
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The fair use changes are very troubling. If you are not in a major centre with access to the home network even though you are in their coverage area, they will track your usage and terminate your plan if you are using the roam capability too much.
To be clear, I take it that this does not affect the Personal Hotspot on my iPhone, which how I first interpreted it? I was never even aware of WiFi hotspots available with Freedom Mobile.
correct. These are public wifi hotspots Shaw set up for its tv/phone/internet customers and that network now belongs to Rogers.
When I read the email I received from Freedom I interpreted it as Personal Hotspots. Your post made things much clearer. Thanks!
I wouldn't be surprised if Rogers was not happy with Freedom Mobile customers continuing to be able to access the network. This was one of the requirements for the Rogers/Shaw merger, so by discontinuing the Rogers Hotspots network, they can prevent Freedom Mobile customers from accessing their network since the legal requirement stated that as long as Rogers offered the Hotspots network, it would be shared with Freedom/Quebecor.
I wouldn't be surprised if Rogers was not happy with Freedom Mobile customers continuing to be able to access the network. This was one of the requirements for the Rogers/Shaw merger, so by discontinuing the Rogers Hotspots network, they can prevent Freedom Mobile customers from accessing their network since the legal requirement stated that as long as Rogers offered the Hotspots network, it would be shared with Freedom/Quebecor.
This is truly disappointing. The highest impacted would be those on lower priced plans with limited data. The move will disproportionately affect those with lower incomes.
I just love the way this merger keeps getting "better for Canadians"
When main stream media and those in power keep repeating lies, and others keep spreading them especial through socials those lies eventually start to become 'fact'."
Mainstream media never said it was gonna be better. It was just the companies that said it was gonna be better. And the companies under Rogers. Everybody else knew it was gonna be trash
This blog title is confusing, seems like clickbait. For quite some time now Shaw WI-FI access points have been rendered impotent with the exception of Shaw Passpoint customers which only affected iPhone users .
Based on the title, it seems Rogers is getting rid of all Rogers free hot spots which wouldn't surprise me. The demand for these hotspots now comes mostly from tourists, students who can't afford the expensive data plans that cost $40 or more per month, and underprivileged users, such as those from Shaw Mobile who migrated to Rogers under the special migration plan that runs until 2028.
Expect Telus to follow suit in this monkey see, monkey do climate especially where telecos mirror each other’s moves. For those who haven't noticed, many iPhone users have reported unusually high data usage coming from an unknown source under iOS: Settings > Cellular > System Services > General. This behavior appears intentional, likely designed to push users into purchasing more data from their providers.
Rogers is the worst company in Canada.
While they are bad, they are no worse than Bell orTelus
Perfect nothing better expected from merger. Amazing job Rogers. This is how to take out a carrier (freedom). AFFORDABILITY!!!!
For we are..
In October I'll be switching to Freedom. Currently I'm the last in the family to do so due to contract. Speed and coverage is great according to other family members. Plus free calling, texting and 10GB of roaming in another country is included with Freedom. Rogers wants $15/day for "roam like home". Right. Rogers TV service is Telus-like now requiring wifi connectivity. We now have single point of failure, Which seems to happen a lot compared to never with Cable TV. "Progress" and higher costs.
Rogers tv works over Ethernet too
If you want exposed wires everywhere yes. What was wrong with coaxial cable? Nothing. So if my internet goes down so does the TV. If one of my family members didn’t need TV I’d cancel it altogether.
Ethernet is not necessarily any more exposed than coaxial. With coaxial if your internet went down so would your tv as well. The old system still had a single point of failure.
But as I said it’s not wifi exclusive as you stated. It works on both wifi and Ethernet
Incorrect. Shaw TV was not piped through your router. Coaxial is built-in to most houses. To run Ethernet from your router into another room that has a TV would be messy. If you are in a strata, good luck getting permission to rip open walls.
then do moca or powerline
I mean, we can split hairs but it’s extremely rare that the cable internet connection to your house would go down but your cable TV would continue to work. If your router specifically is having that many problems then that’s more a “you” problem, and time to get a better working router.
In any event all I said was that it’s not WiFi only, it’s wifi and Ethernet, so it supports both wireless and wired. Sure you could make an argument that Ethernet is less convenient in certain circumstances but that’s not the statement you initially made.
I’ve had Rogers, which was Shaw which was Rogers before Shaw! The TV wasn’t tied into the router until just recently. We literally never had TV issues before but sometimes the internet went down.
As for the “you” issue I’ve been around long enough to no the when the system goes down it’s the providers issue. Unless a piece of hardware on my side flaked out.
I’m not going to debate or defend how good Rogers is or isn’t in this case considering the fees they charge for said uptime.
I guess the people commenting missed the part where freedom was phasing out their hotspot entirely to get their customers on 5g and rogers stated hot spot usage dramatically decreased. As a business why would you continue this expense that is barely used and mostly used by a competitor 's base?
Telus already announced the shutdown of their far smaller #Telus hotspot network for July 31.
That was announced January 20 2025.
Rogers is once again following a decision one of their competitors already took.
Prior to the full shutdown Telus ended doing repairs on existing sites on July 7 2023.
I have clients with some of both. The Shaw ones often have old modems and radios too. Modems that customers were told must be replaced years ago were still running these wifi sites. Lots of cisco dcp3825 and even a few Motorola surfboard sb8200 and I think the oldest might be a sb5100. The Telus sites were on fibre and ran off a dedicated port on their ONT.
For years now both have been offering wifi the business can host on their own as an add on instead. Mostly Cisco Meraki managed radios.
So now if a business hosting a public wifi they will just brand it themselves. "Joes garage public" or maybe post a qr code to it. Rogers gives you a subaccount on Meraki to manage your own ssid settings.
They don't have 5G in most of the Victoria area on Vancouver Island.
The Shaw Hotpot has not been working for months. Once connected, it shows no internet in some areas and others very slow speed. That’s the reason of low usage. This truly affecting Freedom users. On top of that the data/internet has been painful with Freedom. Is this purchase considered a monopoly type?
The most expensive cell phones in the world with them worst coverage and now even less service!
Wow they really are worth the MASSIVE cost they rip us off for!!