English map of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Seoul and how to connect

The Seoul city government runs an extensive free Wi-Fi network throughout the city, called 까치온 (Kkachi-On, a wordplay on the Korean word for the magpie bird which traditionally brings good news, and probably the sound of "together on"). Anyone can connect to this network of hotspots and use them freely, including tourists, students, and visitors in addition to local residents. You don't need anything special to connect. It's all totally free to use.  

Promotional image from Kkachi On, Seoul city's free wi-fi service

This network is distinct from the WiFi hotspots offered nationwide by the 3 major telecom operators which you must be a paying customer to use. And because it's so large and now has coverage throughout nearly the entire city, it's a great choice for people visiting Seoul who don't want to pay for a temporary phone contract just to use data. 

English map of Seoul's free Wi-Fi hotspots

How do you find where these hot-spots are? The Seoul government has an English-language map detailing exactly where each hotspot is located and whether it is an indoor or outdoor router. 

Screenshot of Seoul city's free Wi-Fi hotspots

This map is provided in Korean, English, Chinese, and Japanese. Here's the English version to browse to see if the place you will stay or visit has coverage:

https://map.seoul.go.kr/smgis2/short/6N7lH?lang=en

Zooming into this map, and enabling the "Buffer" layer in the options on the side, will give you an idea of the coverage of an area. For example here is the Gwanghwamun Plaza, near the statue of King Sejong and the US Embassy. We can see that most of the plaza itself is covered via the routers set up outside the Sejong Performing Arts complex. 

Seoul City wifi coverage in downtown area

The coverage is pretty liberal for a totally free service so it's entirely possible to visit Seoul without paying for data coverage, though of course that's up to you. 

How to connect to Seoul city's free Wi-Fi hotspots

How to connect your device to this Wi-Fi? Here's a guide provided by the city.

Seoul City free Wi-Fi setup guide. Image: Seoul

Probably easy enough to understand even without reading Hangul but here's the info anyway:

For Apple iOS users:

Just connect and input "seoul" as your username as "seoul" as the password. 

It may have a pop-up asking if you trust the certificate from "radius.nexpector.com" which you must agree to to use the service. It will look something like this:

Sample iOS network certificate. Image: Apple

After that you're all set. 

For Android users:

You'll need to go to the advanced settings for the Wi-Fi network and ensure it is set up in this way:

EAP method : PEAP

Phase 2 authentication: None

CA Certificate : Don't validate

Identity: seoul

Password: seoul

Auto reconnect: Yes

The settings page should look like this:

That should be all you need. Doing this once, your phone should automatically connect to Seoul's free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the city now. 

Note that this applies to Seoul City Government's official free Wi-Fi service, but many other municipal governments offer their own similar service through the country and many department stores or coffee shops will offer free wi-fi, in addition to plentiful free wi-fi at Incheon Airport and other transportation hubs. It's certainly doable to visit without any data connection, though of course prepaid SIM card services for tourists are available.