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Vancouver residents looking to save a few dollars on their smartphone bills may be pleased to hear the city is expanding its free public Wi-Fi network.

The expanded network will be among the largest in North America, the city said in a news release Thursday. Representatives from the city and Shaw Communications will announce details Friday morning.

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Vancouver first began installing free Wi-Fi in 2015 at six community centres and golf courses before expanding to 43 civic sites. Telus won the initial five-year contract but both Shaw and Telus were approved as vendors pre-qualified to compete for potential further expansion of the service.

Neither users nor the city are paying for that service, whose installation and maintenance the city estimated would have cost $4 million over the five-year contract term.

The city-funded Vancouver Public Library already has hugely popular Wi-Fi spots, used by more than 80,000 cardholders in 2016. The introduction of city Wi-Fi caused a significant drop in library Wi-Fi use at some branches co-located with community centres, according to the library’s 2016 operating report.