In one of my previous blogs, I talked about the issue of "free" WiFi" and how there seems to be a movement towards that we have a "right" to free WiFi. For all intents and purposes, I questioned if this was practical and reasonable to expect.
Now - I will totally contradict myself - to an extent. Yesterday, I was a WiFi "consumer" frantically looking for WiFi hotspots at Bay and Bloor. Before I go on, I am not changing my mind on the issue of free WiFi. With this blog entry, I am simply looking at this from a different perspective. I don't really expect that I had a right to expect WiFi access, but gosh darn - yesterday, it would have been very nice!
Waiting for some friends to arrive from the subway, I was somewhat bored, so I thought that I'd whip out my iPod and try to connect as I waited.
Well - I was first of all astonished at how many WiFi networks were accessible from the south east corner of Bay and Bloor. The little grey padlock indicating a private network dashed my hopes of being able to join in, but I didn't give up. I walked around the downtown core looking for public networks that perhaps I could partake of. I actually found a public (i.e. not password protected) called something like Toronto_Public_WiFi. With a network name like that, one would expect that is exactly what I was looking for. However, no luck - couldn't connect, so off I went looking for others.
As I'm walking south on Bay Street, I thought to myself that perhaps that in a previous life, I was a a professional water-dowser. I was pointing my iPod in every which direction looking for the oasis of free access.
I eventually gave up and went low-tech and had a coffee at Starbucks. Didn't occur to me that they'd have a free hotspot. I must have spent a good half hour trying to figure out to connect and by the time that I finally did, it was time to meet my party.
Free WiFi access for the masses! No - not really, but yesterday, it certainly would have been nice.
