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Vancouver now has one of North America’s biggest free Wi-Fi networks

Vancouver Friday morning announced a major expansion to the city’s free public Wi-Fi network making it the largest in the country.
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There are now more than 500 #VanWiFi locations across the city, with more coming soon.

Vancouver Friday morning announced a major expansion to the city’s free public Wi-Fi network making it the largest in the country.

“Shaw’s expansion of #VanWiFi is a huge win for our residents and businesses, covering more than 500 locations in the downtown core and surrounding areas,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said at a press conference.

In 2015, 42 locations were equipped with free public Wi-Fi. In 2016, Shaw was chosen for the second phase of the city’s plan and expanded the network to another 15 locations, including all nine city-owned social housing sites and six outdoor locations including Canada Place, Jim Deva Plaza, English Bay and Sunset beaches, several blocks of Granville Street and Oppenheimer Park.

The Granville location is now live and the remaining sites will become active in the coming months. In addition to those locations requested by the city, the network has been expanded to more than 500 locations throughout the downtown core and surrounding areas. In total, free public Wi-Fi will be available at more than 600 locations throughout the city.

About 550 are already active, with the remaining locations coming online in the coming months. The service is provided at no cost to the city.

“People are more digitally connected than ever and good public Wi-Fi access enables locals and visitors to more easily connect and interact online and supports Vancouver’s tourism and economic success,” Robertson said.   

Jessie Adcock, the city’s chief technology officer, said the expansion makes #VanWiFi the largest free public Wi-Fi network in Canada, the third largest in North America, behind New York City and Washington, D.C., and puts it in the top ten networks in the world.

 The expansion of the public network is also a boon for local tourism.

“This is an exciting development for the visitor experience in Vancouver,” said Ted Little, CFO and commercial director with Tourism Vancouver. “Free Wi-Fi service in key locations will enable visitors to use their smart phones and devices to discover attractions, activities and restaurants, for wayfinding, and to navigate Vancouver’s transportation options.

“It will also better enable visitors to use social media on a real-time basis to share their Vancouver experiences with the world,” he added. “Furthermore, this is an important development for the Vancouver tourism industry as it moves us closer to our goal if being a smart tourism destination.”

Adcock said bandwidth speed will generally be 10 MB per second and there is no cap on data usage.

She added that users don’t have to enter any personal information to access the network.

A map of all the locations can be seen at vancouver.ca/wifi.

@JessicaEKerr