After WiFi service finally came to Bloor-Yonge and St. George stations last December, another one of the TTC’s stations has started to offer this necessity of modern life. On Tuesday morning, Bay station’s WiFi service was officially turned on. Now, well-to-do Yorkville shoppers can finally re-watch episodes of House of Cards while they wait to take their newly bought swag home. Progress!
According to BAI Canada, the company in charge of rolling out and maintaining the WiFi service, commuters can expect the service to come to additional stations in the near future. Wellesley, College, Dundas and Union stations are all slated to have access to the Internet by the end of this fall. Moreover, the company says they plan to completely cover the lower portion of the University-Spadina line by next spring. See the list below to get a full sense of when and where the service will come to different parts of the University-Spadina line.
In 2012, BAI won a bid to supply TTC commuters with wireless service. In exchange for a 20-year long exclusivity deal, the company will pay the TTC $25-million over that same course of time. The company earns money by displaying ads on users smartphones before they log onto the network.
The wireless infrastructure BAI is building at each station will allow for wireless carriers to easily plug in and provide wireless service to their customers. However, according to the Globe and Mail, BAI has yet to secure an agreement with any of the three big telecoms. Moreover, the service is not expected to come to the city’s subway tunnels until sometime between 2017 and 2019.
My daily commute to work doesn’t take me to any of the stations that currently have the service, so unfortunately I can’t comment on the quality of it. However, some of my colleagues and friends at other publications have told me that getting access to the service is a bit convoluted. Still, any WiFi is better than none. [via Globe and Mail]
- Wellesley — September 2014
- College — September 2014
- Union — October 2014
- Dundas — October 2014
- Queen — November 2014
- King — November 2014
- Spadina — December 2014
- St Andrew — January 2015
- Osgoode — January 2015
- St Patrick — February 2015
- Queen’s Park — February 2015
- Museum — March 2015
Image via Flickr user Matt Reeder.
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Igor Bonifacic is the managing editor of Toronto Standard. Follow him on Twitter.
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