Cancún, Quintana Roo — Quintana Roo is extending free public internet to some of its busiest beaches, parks and pedestrian areas, although the project remains far from providing comprehensive coverage across the state’s tourism corridor.

New connection points are planned for Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres, following earlier installations in Cancún, Tulum and Puerto Morelos. Once the latest locations are operating, the network is expected to cover more than 165,000 square meters, according to GigNet México, the telecommunications company working with the state government and the Quintana Roo Tourism Department, or Sedetur.

The expansion is part of an agreement signed by the state, Sedetur and GigNet in March 2023. The program is intended to give residents, tourism workers and visitors free internet access in prominent public spaces without requiring them to enter a restaurant, hotel or other private business.

Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres are next

Playa del Carmen is expected to receive service at Parque Fundadores and along part of Quinta Avenida, two of the city’s most heavily visited public areas. GigNet estimates the Playa del Carmen network could handle connections from approximately 13,000 devices a day.

On Isla Mujeres, coverage is planned around Playa Norte and Playa Centro, where thousands of cruise passengers, day-trippers and overnight visitors gather daily.

No firm activation date has been announced for either destination. The Playa del Carmen and Isla Mujeres sites were included in an expansion announced in September 2025, suggesting that installation and government coordination have taken longer than initially anticipated.

Sedetur said the expansion would use dedicated one-gigabit connections. That describes the capacity serving each public location, not a guaranteed one-gigabit speed for every telephone, tablet or computer. Individual performance will depend on signal strength, the number of simultaneous users and how the network distributes its available bandwidth.

Neither Sedetur nor GigNet has publicly detailed the expected speed per user, login procedure, connection time limits, data allowances or privacy terms for the forthcoming sites.

Service began at Playa Delfines

The first two modules opened in Cancún’s Hotel Zone in October 2023. One serves Playa Delfines, where coverage extends across approximately 36,000 square meters and more than 2,500 devices reportedly connect each day. Another operates at Kilometer Zero, the gateway to Kukulcán Boulevard.

Two additional points were installed in Tulum during 2024. GigNet says each receives connections from more than 650 devices daily.

Puerto Morelos became the latest destination to activate the service, opening a connection point at Parque Fundadores in the Casco Antiguo in August 2026. Coverage in the community is intended to include the recently reconstructed Fishermen’s Pier and Malecón area.

Together, the operating sites reportedly provide more than 100,000 square meters of coverage and receive at least 5,700 device connections per day.

Some publicity surrounding the program has described Playa Delfines as Mexico’s only free, high-speed public internet site. That distinction requires qualification. Mexico City, for example, operates thousands of free public Wi-Fi points. Playa Delfines may be unusual for the size and capacity of its beach installation, but it is not the country’s only public internet network.

A small footprint in a heavily connected destination

Luis de Potestad, vice president of institutional relations for GigNet México, said even the expanded system would meet less than 2% of the connectivity required by Quintana Roo’s tourism industry.

That figure is the company’s estimate, and no public methodology has been released showing how it was calculated. Square meters of outdoor coverage and the number of devices seeking internet access are also different measurements, making the percentage difficult to assess independently.

The broader point, however, is supported by the scale of tourism in the state. Quintana Roo has more than 135,000 hotel rooms and received more than 20 million tourists in 2024, according to state tourism figures. Cozumel and Mahahual together received more than 7.7 million cruise passengers in 2025.

On an average day, the Mexican Caribbean may have approximately 250,000 tourists using mobile services, according to De Potestad. His estimate assumes that each traveler carries an average of three connected devices, potentially placing more than 750,000 visitor devices on local networks. That calculation does not include the phones and computers used by nearly 2 million residents, tourism employees, vacation-rental operators and businesses.

More than a tourist convenience

For international visitors, free public Wi-Fi can provide access to maps, transportation apps, electronic reservations and messaging without incurring roaming charges or purchasing a Mexican data plan.

Its value extends beyond tourists. Public access can help residents complete transactions, communicate with employers and reach relatives. Workers in tourist zones may also use it during commutes and breaks, while reliable connectivity can be particularly valuable during an emergency.

The locations selected so far are concentrated in high-traffic tourism spaces rather than residential neighborhoods, however. The project should therefore be viewed as targeted public connectivity, not as a substitute for broader household internet access or mobile coverage.

Users should also remember that public networks are shared. Sensitive banking, password changes and the transmission of personal documents are best avoided unless the website or application uses a secure connection. Visitors should confirm the official network name posted at each location to avoid connecting to an imitation hotspot.

The next test will come in Playa del Carmen, where Parque Fundadores and Quinta Avenida attract a much larger daily flow of pedestrians than the existing sites. If the projected 13,000 device connections materialize, the locations will demonstrate whether the network can maintain useful speeds under heavy demand.

For now, the program is steadily adding connected public spaces along the Mexican Caribbean. Its reach remains limited, but in destinations where directions, reservations and even restaurant menus increasingly depend on a mobile phone, access to a reliable signal has become part of the tourism infrastructure.