Two Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) subway stations are to receive free Wi-Fi today (November 25th) and there are plans to roll out the service to a further 61 stations.
According to metronews.ca, passengers at St. George and Bloor-Yonge subway stations can now send emails, receive alerts from the TTC and surf the web as they please.
BAI Canada, the company that won the $25 million contract to provide the Wi-Fi infrastructure, will also roll out the service to another 61 Toronto subway stations by 2017.
Brad Ross, TTC spokesman, explained that a full cell service (which would allow customers to text and call others) isn’t available just yet.
“Cell providers have not demonstrated an eagerness to participate at this stage, so there will be no cell service or texting,” he said. “We’ve sent letters to the big service providers to encourage them to come on board. The TTC is eager to work with
The current Wi-Fi availability at the two stations does mean some customers will be able to send urgent messages and texts via certain internet-powered apps. Alternatively, they can resort to using email for the time being.
It will take a couple of weeks to test the new wireless service before it is implemented at other TTC stations.