Wi-Fi will be coming to a Vancouver venue near you soon but the plan to roll out free wireless hot spots across the city is already getting some static.

City council gave the go-ahead to Telus this week to carry out its plan to install wireless networks at 43 city locations, including community centres, outdoor pools, public golf course clubhouses, theatres and cultural centres and the city’s marinas in False Creek. Two outdoor locations — around the convention centre and along the downtown section of Granville Street — are still on the city’s list, but the city said rollout will be delayed while technical issues in getting connectivity and power to poles are worked out.

The city-funded Vancouver Public Library already has free Wi-Fi spots, which have shown huge demand, logging nearly 1.7 million sessions last year.

While welcoming the free Wi-Fi, Vancouver-based Internet advocacy group OpenMedia.ca wanted to see a smaller independent company provide the service. Telus won the initial five-year contract but both Shaw and Telus have been approved as vendors pre-qualified to compete for potential further expansion of the service.

“It’s really good that the City of Vancouver has taken this on and recognized it as something that’s important to residents. It’s good for the economy, it’s good for reducing inequality and the digital divide,” said Steve Anderson, founder and executive director of OpenMedia.ca.

“I have some problems with the process and the way it was set out because a huge part of the reason people want public Wi-Fi is they want to get away from the large telecom incumbents that have very high prices. … To award it to one of those incumbents is almost the opposite of what people want. People want a new choice.”

Paul Mochrie, general manager in charge of human resources and digital for the city of Vancouver, said while smaller vendors expressed interest, they didn’t have the resources to carry out the contract. Under the terms the city was seeking, the Wi-Fi structure would be installed and maintained at the vendor’s cost.

“Something of this scope could be difficult for a small company or a non-profit to have the resources to do,” said Mochrie. “It is a significant infrastructure cost to them.”

Neither users nor the city are paying for it. Mochrie said had the city carried out the installation and maintenance of the Wi-Fi services itself, it would have amounted to $4 million over the five-year term of Telus’s contract.

“It’s a great opportunity for the folks in Vancouver,” he said. “One of the key drivers for the city was to provide more and easier access for people who don’t have connectivity at home.

“Bridging the digital divide is important for us.”

Installation will start in several weeks, with the rollout based on the city’s requirements, said Josh Blair, chief corporate officer at Telus.

“We hope to have them all done by the end of the year,” Blair said.

Some of the installations are indoors, such as community centres or the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Others, like the Kitsilano pool, are outdoors.

“The common thread is where it is a significant gathering place,” Blair said.

“The Wi-Fi equipment is so small now you just find the right spots to install it and you can do an outdoor area as effectively as an indoor area,” he said. “We can cover an area as big as we need to.

“Obviously you have to have more spots to install equipment to pick up a larger area but with the right installation, we can cover a bigger area outdoors as effectively as a closed area.”

Blair said the Wi-Fi coverage will improve services for both Telus and non-Telus customers alike and lighten the demand on Telus’s cellular data network.

“When you get a lot of people gathered in one location, it puts a lot of demand on your cellular network so this provides a better overall experience,” he said.

“It’s better for our customers. It will enable non customers of Telus to see us in a different light … and the final thing is it’s our hometown and we’ve got a great partnership with the city of Vancouver and it’s good to be able to help.”

Telus is covering the cost of installation and maintenance and Blair said the city’s estimate of $4 million over the five years is about right.

The service is free, users are anonymous with no requirements to share information and there are no data caps. Blair said customers on the Telus network will find their devices automatically switch to the free Wi-Fi when they are in range. If they want to remain on the cellular network, they can turn off Wi-Fi on their devices. A website will open up for users who aren’t Telus customers and they’ll simply have to hit accept to go on the Wi-Fi service and they’ll be connected.

Telus has committed to upload and download speeds of five megabytes per second, which is at the low end of the broadband scale, but Blair said it’s a good speed considering the number of people who will be using it.

“When you’ve got that many people in one gathering place all trying to use Wi-Fi at the same time, that’s actually a very good speed,” he said. “You probably wouldn’t be using the highest bandwidth applications but you could be watching videos on YouTube or Facebook or getting some work done between laps at the pool.”

Security-wise it’s an open network like one you’d find at the airport or other free Wi-Fi hot spots, so it wouldn’t be a good idea to do banking or other password-sensitive transactions. While some cities, such as Fredericton, N.B., provide their own free Wi-Fi service, Mochrie said as the demand for data grows, it’s difficult to keep pace.

“Looking at the experience with the Vancouver Public Library, it is very difficult to maintain a level of service as the use of data grows,” said Mochrie. “One of the advantages of partnering with a telecom is that it has the capacity to maintain that.”

Wi-Fi use at the library increased by 55 per cent in 2014, said Christina de Castell, the library’s director of collections and technology.

“We’re thrilled that there will be more free Wi-Fi in the city,” she said. “The more places the city can provide free Wi-Fi, the better of we are at bridging the digital divide.”

She added that the library offers digital literacy programs on topics such as basic computer use and protecting your privacy online.

According to a city staff report to the city’s standing committee on planning, transportation and environment, demand for public access Wi-Fi in many areas of the city, particularly the 43 building and two street infrastructure locations identified for the initial Wi-Fi rollout, “has become critical.”

“The primary drivers for demand are economic development, tourism, digital divide, emergency response, business transformation and competitive pressures,” the report said.

Shaw already offers Wi-Fi hot spots in the city, but only those with Shaw Internet plans can access them.

gshaw@vancouversun.com

vancouversun.com/digitallife

With a file from Matthew Robinson

Some other cities with free Wi-Fi

Boston:

Wicked Free Wi-Fi can be accessed at more than 170 points within the city’s public wireless network. The largest outdoor area where it is available is Grove Hall, which has a diameter of 2.4 km. Other outdoor areas where it is available include Boston Common and Rose Fitzgerald Greenway.

Toronto:

In Toronto, public Wi-Fi is available indoors. The city provides it at City Hall and at the Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough Civic Centres. Free Wi-Fi is available at the 99 branches of the Toronto Public Library. Wireless Toronto, a not-for-profit community group, has 21 hot spots in bars, cafes and restaurants but you have to open an account at no charge to use the network.

Calgary:

Calgary’s Public Wi-Fi uses the Shaw Go Wi-Fi network. It’s available at 13 locations including outdoor areas at Devonian Gardens and Shaw Millennium Park and indoor at Village Square Leisure Centre and Ernie Starr Arena.

Surrey:

Surrey is in the process of installing, in partnership with Shaw, free Wi-Fi at more than 40 parks, civic buildings and public areas. Locations include the Cloverdale Fairgrounds, Guildford Library and the Fraser Heights, Guildford, North Surrey and South Surrey Recreation Centres.

Seattle:

The city of Seattle and Microsoft have announced they will install a free Wi-Fi network at Seattle Centre, the 30 hectare (74 acre) entertainment and sports park and site of the Space Needle. In 2012, Seattle gave up trying to install its own free Wi-Fi network after spending a reported $50 million.

Vancouver Sun

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