Canada: Toronto Public Library’s Wi-Fi Lending Program Provides a Limited Amount of Data

From Huffington Post Canada:

The Toronto Public Library (TPL) has partnered with Google Canada on a year-long Wi-Fi hotspot lending program that gives members free Internet in their homes.
The program provides members at branches in low-income communities with hotspots they can take out for up to six months at a time and use 10 gigabytes of data provided by Telus.
[Note: The article points out that libraries in the U.S. that are part of the Google funded program (for example, Chicago and NYC) both provide unlimited data.]
Anyone who goes over the monthly data allotment will see the devices turn off until the first day of the next month.
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The library tried to obtain more flexible data through the program, but hasn’t been able to negotiate that so far, Sara Tavakolian, project lead for the TPL’s Wi-Fi program, told the website.
“Hopefully the publicity about this, and the support from the city and Google, will allow us to negotiate a more affordable and flexible data plan going forward,” she said.

Read the Complete Article
See Also: Canadian Telecom Is Limiting a Free WiFi Program For Low-Income Families (via Motherboard)
Includes a response from ISP.

Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Public Libraries