[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto Has a Wi-Fi Problem"

[rfmcdonald]

Torontoist's Anders Marshall writes about the yawning digital divide in Toronto.

According to Mayor John Tory, Toronto has a culture of “haves” and “have nots”: those with privilege, with access to resources and services—and those without them. It’s our job, the mayor told a crowd at Thorncliffe Park’s Public Library branch last month, to bridge that divide.

“I believe the best thing to do is build people up, to allow them to be everything they can be,” Tory says.

Among the resources unavailable to many is access to internet. The city has a Wi-Fi problem: though it is a necessity when it comes to job searches, education, and employment, many Torontonians cannot afford home internet packages.

In an effort to improve access, the Toronto Public Library has begun a partnership with Google Canada to create a Wi-Fi hotspot rental program.

The program completed its pilot phase in June, beginning with 210 individual mobile units. Aside from Thorncliffe, branches participating in the program include Albion, Cedarbrae, Evelyn Gregory, Parliament Street, and York Woods. Users can rent hotspots from any participating branch for six months at a time, and are allocated 10 gigabytes of data to use each month.