Just how fast is free Wi-Fi at McDonald’s?

After announcing that McDonald’s was going to begin offering free Wi-Fi during the first quarter of 2010, I finally had a chance to give it a shot. Wi-Fi at Mickey D’s is provided by AT&T and if you’ve used your iPhone at McDonald’s (it was free to iPhone users previously), it will be the same network. After the click below, let’s take a look at how easy it is to get online and just how fast a Wi-Fi connection you can expect, as you munch on some fries.



There are only a few steps required to to connect to McDonald’s/AT&T Wi-Fi. Connection to the network involves nothing more than:

• Load your favorite browser
• Navigate to any page, Google for example – you will be redirected to the McDonald’s Wayport page
• Accept the terms of service and click the connect button – the now connected page will be displayed and you are ready for business

I was curious as to just how fast a connection was being provided, so I fired up Speedtest.net. The results of this test are presented in the image below.

Based on the speeds I received, you won’t be uploading nor downloading large files, nor will you be streaming movies {UPDATE: I was able to view low quality YouTube videos without a hiccup and I was able to receive a steady acceptable quality stream from Netflix...not bad), but you will find a competent connection for blogging, e-mail, surfing and even audio downloads/streaming. And with the ubiquity of McDonald’s, you are sure to find a connection when you need it. Would you like Wi-Fi with that? “I’m lovin’ it!”

Have you given free Wi-Fi at McDonald’s a shot? Post a comment and leave your speed test results. I’m curious to see if these speeds are fairly consistent.