Canada may be ahead of the States for residential broadband penetration, but we are lagging pretty far behind for free wifi. When you're down south, everywhere you look there's free wifi to be had - truck stops, restaurants, hotels, coffee shops, etc. Here, it's "sure we have wifi - enter your credit card and pay by the hour". Do businesses here think this would somehow not attract more customers, or are they afraid of customers sitting for hours and not buying anything?

Where is the free part?? You have to be a Bell customer already paying for service to use this promotion. For the rest of the population who doesn't subscribe to Bell, there is no change, you pay! WooT, I feel better now, thanks Starbucks. I think I'll get coffee somewhere else.

hehehe, I though the headline read:

"Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks, but...Their Coffee Still Sucks"

Ahaha...Funny. To hell with Bell (honestly, after their latest shananigans), and to hell with Starbucks too. The internet and the coffee go hand in hand, they both suck. Try Bridgehead...anyone can get free WiFi there.

It's funny how much of a big deal people make of needing free internet wherever they go. Why not pick up a book (which is especially easy since many Starbucks stores are connected to book stores) and stare at something that doesn't have that rectangular glow?

If you don't like Starbucks, does it really make a difference whether you get internet there or not? There is no need to complain about a service that you don't even use. I really don't think it changes much for the majority of people. I will personally still go there for a nice drink and some good service.

Why is it necessary for us to have free internet wherever we go? Why not pick up a book (which would be easy at Starbucks since most of them are connected to book stores) and stare at something without that rectangular glow?

If you don't like Starbucks, then why complain that they don't have free internet when you wouldn't be caught dead there in the first place? I personally like their drinks and have always had good service. There aren't many places that will give you a new drink for free if you don't like the one you got.

Forget the internet and go out for coffee to enjoy the company of some friends rather than your laptop.

Your article is incorrect. It's free even if you are not a Bell customer. I used it yesterday. Bell Internet customers get it for free for unlimited time. Starbucks card holders get 2hrs free per day. I did my work emails, hotmail, MSN messenger, and random surfing with no probs. Didn't try any peer to peer stuff, but I wouldn't be doing that in a public wifi location anyway.

While I p2p frequently at home, I would consider p2p'ing off someone else's network, a public network or a freely provided network to be a gross breach of netiquette - all legality aside, there's so much IP overhead that you end up being an internet hog. My connection at home is *my* connection, i pay for and manage it. But on an open network? Get some tact.

YET ANOTHER INCORRECT STATEMENT BY CBC.

You dont need to have home service with Bell in order to get free wifi at starbucks. If you have a REGISTERED Starbucks card, u can get 2hrs free per day!

Here in Regina we have free wireless in the downtown core area, and the University. Not too many people use it, because you don't see too many laptops around. I have not checked the speed at speedtest dot net. I did get a chance to use it for livevideo which seemed to stream fine.