As great as Freifunk is, it requires a fairly substantial number of nodes in order to start to become a full city-wide WiFi service. Until that happens, we’ve listed some other Free Public WiFi options below.
To qualify for this list, WiFi networks must:
This is the University’s public WiFi service, covering every single university department in Cambridge, most of the colleges, and even some outdoor spaces such as Parkers Piece and Jesus Green. It is likely the public WiFi network with the most coverage in the city.
Registration is required, and you can register with either an email address or a social media account. Once you register once, your device will be remembered for future connections. There is also a speed limit on the connection imposed by the university (up to 25 MBPS download and 15 MBPS upload), but this shouldn’t be an issue unless you’re trying to do very data-heavy tasks. You can find instructions on the University website regarding how to connect.
This is the WiFi service provided by Cambridgeshire County Council at public libraries, sports centres, the Market Square and other places.
Registration is not required (you just accept the Terms on the log in page), and I have seen the speed reach as high as 70 MBPS in ideal conditions. However the coverage is much less than the University Public WiFi. You can find instructions on how to access the service here although it should be pretty self-explanatory.
This is another network which can be found in various restaurants, shops and other places around the city. Coverage is decreasing, though, as increasingly businesses are opting out to so they can use their own network. The network is provided by the telephone company o2, and is typically rather slow (under 10 MBPS). It also has by far the worst registration process on this list, requiring a verified phone number, your name, your email, your postcode, your date of birth and even more personal data, so we recommend not to use this unless you really have to.
The University used to have a much more limited WiFi service running under the name “_The Cloud”. It was in very select locations only and required a super long registration, so you’ll be glad to hear it’s now mostly gone. Restaurants including wagamama and Pret have also chosen to opt-out. But, you will find at a few businesses who still choose to use it (examples include Café Nero and Greggs). If you you really must use it, just give fake data. Sky (the provider) actually sell the data you enter, so you can see why this has lost popularity after that knowledge went public. But it is free to use, though, so if you really must do it enter fake data and you will be fine. Just remember to click “Forget device” on their login page at wifi.sky.com after you disconnect, otherwise you’re trading automatic log-in for being tracked around the country. There is the info page, but you will likely not need it.
Below we have listed a few other handy options that don’t qualify for the list above
Although not a specific network, you’ll find that many cafés, coffee shops and restaurants in the city will provide free WiFi to their customers. In some you’ll need to ask for a password, while in others the network may require registration via an online form. Many cafés in the city centre are also unintentially covered by the University Public WiFi too, so you may be able to continue to use the same network in a café, in a college, and outdoors as well.
If you find yourself needing mobile internet a lot, there is good coverage on 4G, and even some 5G as well, in Cambridge. You will need to either get a phone contract or get a free pay-as-you-go SIM (which you will need to top up before use).
Eduroam really is the best network in Cambridge. It (almost) has city-wide coverage, and in ideal conditions speeds of over 700 MBPS can be reached. Coverage contributed by three academic institutions combined makes it seamless as you move around the city, changing routers as you move around. And unlike the University Public WiFi, eduroam really does cover every single college.
But, unfortunately, there’s one huge downside: it’s only accessible to you if you’re part of an institution which takes part in it. So if you’re studying at university you will likely have access, but apart from that you won’t be able to get onto this one unfortunately. Some university cafés have previously given out 1-day WiFi access vouchers meant for the “UniOfCam” WiFi service which also work on eduroam, but these are being phased out as the new university Public WiFi is used more widely. If you are lucky enough to get one of these 1-day tickets, you can connect to eduroam for 24 hours on an unlimited number of devices. Just enter ticketid@wireless.cam.ac.uk in the Username box where ticketid is the long number on your ticket (e.g. 300-123-456) and enter your ticket’s password in the password box. You’ll be connected, but it will only work for eduroam provided by the University of Cambridge. eduroam networks of other institutions will not accept the credentials.
Honestly, don’t connect to these ones! Read our advice to find out why not.
As you travel around Cambridge, you’re bound to see “BTWi-fi” pop up in your network list sooner or later. You may think “Well it’s open so why not?”
We’ll tell you why not. Once selected, you’ll be redirected to a log-in page where you either have to sign in if you’re a BT customer, or buy access if not. If you’re connecting to a free BT hotspot offered by one of BT’s partners, this can be pretty good. You’ll be taken to a log-in page with “Free access” as the top option. It will be free, often with no registration, and you may get proper speeds too. But if the network is called exactly “BTWi-fi”, it’s not free. Here are some examples of network names to connect to and ones to avoid:
And look at the prices, they’re crazy for slow WiFi anyway!
And you may think that if you can get WiFi everywhere, then it’s worth it. But I can tell you it’s really not. What you’re actually paying for is the privilege to use someone else’s nearby BT home router, and the money doesn’t even go to them, it goes to BT. As a BT customer I have had free access to this network so have had a chance to try it out. Speeds range from a super-slow 1 MBPS to a much faster 75 MBPS, but there’s no way to know what that speed will be until you pay. You are also limited to 30 MBPS download if connecting to a home router, but on a business hub this limit is removed. There’s no way to know which type of hub you’re connecting to, though. And lastly the person who’s hub it is also get’s priority over their internet bandwidth, so if they suddenly start using the internet you may find that your speed suddenly drops.
Once you select “BTWi-fi” once, BT bank on the fact you won’t forget the network and will just close the payment page. In this case, the page will pop up automatically when you’re in a coverage area, so you’ll have to close it each time. So if you’ve accidentally clicked on this network, you should click that “Forget” button as soon as possible.
A much better connectivity option is 4G. It costs about the same for a month of 4G or a couple of days of BT WiFi, and 4G truely is nearly everywhere. So if you are looking for internet everywhere 4G is the answer, not BT WiFi.
Virgin Media, another broadband provider, also has a network broadcasting from their customer’s routers for other customers to use. But, luckily, this one is secured so you won’t just connect by accident. There’s also no option to buy access, and only other Virgin Media customers or customers abroad of partner providers can access it. If you do have access to this for free, we can’t recommend for you to never use it, as it won’t cost you anything. But you’ll get pretty low speeds and it probably won’t be the best WiFi.