The Southern Ontario/WNY Radio-TV Forum / Rogers & TTC To End Free Wi-Fi In Subway

**Posted by RadioActive** September 12, 2024 3:13 pm

Apparently the decision was the TTC's, which didn't think it was worth the money to upgrade a failing out-of-date system that provided the freebie to riders and which research indicates too few were using. 5G service will continue as before.

According to the Toronto Star, subway Wi-Fi will be done by the end of the year.

Rogers, TTC to pull the plug on free Wi-Fi in subway stations

**Posted by Binson Echorec** September 12, 2024 3:23 pm

"World class city".

**Posted by djwildbill** September 12, 2024 4:46 pm

In a time when the TTC should be increasing wifi service, they’re going backwards instead of forwards. I know that internet providers are offering customers a lot more gigabytes for around $40-$50 a month so customers are possibly just using their own data but I still feel that customers should have a choice on the TTC. Data cannot be accessed in many of the subway tunnels so that’s the perfect time customers could use wifi.

**Posted by RadioAaron** September 12, 2024 4:49 pm

The wifi never worked in the tunnels, just the stations....and was really bad.

**Posted by Saul** September 12, 2024 5:19 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
The wifi never worked in the tunnels, just the stations....and was really bad.

Indeed. I tried, found it highly unreliable, and gave up. Speaking of transit, I wonder if any AM stations will still be on the air in Canada when the Eglinton LRT opens...

**Posted by MJ Vancouver** September 12, 2024 6:43 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
The wifi never worked in the tunnels, just the stations....and was really bad.

It almost never worked for me when I used to use the subway. It was barely faster than dial-up.

**Posted by Mavridis** September 12, 2024 6:58 pm

Free wifi was only ever available in the stations and sometimes on platforms. It cost the TTC between 15 and 17 million dollars, it was slow, and they found fewer than 2 percent of riders used it.

**Posted by RadioAaron** September 12, 2024 7:21 pm

Mavridis wrote:
Free wifi was only ever available in the stations and sometimes on platforms. It cost the TTC between 15 and 17 million dollars, it was slow, and they found fewer than 2 percent of riders used it.

...and that probably dropped even closer to zero once the busiest sections got LTE/5G

**Posted by Radiowiz** September 13, 2024 1:15 pm

RadioAaron wrote:
Mavridis wrote:
Free wifi was only ever available in the stations and sometimes on platforms. It cost the TTC between 15 and 17 million dollars, it was slow, and they found fewer than 2 percent of riders used it.
...and that probably dropped even closer to zero once the busiest sections got LTE/5G

I gave up on the "free" internet a long time ago.
Way too slow...and I was just using it to find out when the next bus is coming.
That alone does not hurt my data all that much (text information, vs visuals)
I've been using my regular data for a good long time now. It's faster and more reliable.

Another factor to consider is that more and more data is being made available for similar prices, possibly less.