Comment 4 for bug 1480864

@Andrea

There is a way to do what you propose, however it requires forgetting the network ( which means it won't autoconnect again in the future without a manual connect ). This can be done from the system-settings Wi-Fi page by tapping the ">" next to the checkbox and then clicking "Forget this network".

That said, I'll point out that disconnecting from the current access point is do-able on the desktop via nm-applet. A "Disconnect" menu item is displayed immediately below the currently connected AP.

The GPS case is valid, however not connecting in the first place, or using "Forget this network" would suffice for that case.

A different use case would be a non-free Wi-Fi network which charges you on a time-used basis, such as at a coffee shop. You might want to disconnect at some point but retain the credentials/last-connected attribute so that the next time you came back to the coffee shop you wouldn't have to type your passpharase/key again.