The IT Nerd

News filtered out at the end of last week that the TTC is going to kill off their free WiFi service in the subway system at the end of the year. Here’s the reason why:

The TConnect system was launched more than a decade ago and the transit agency says concerns over the age of the technology and infrastructure related to reliability/performance along with security for users were behind the decision to discontinue the free service.

“We’ve also seen a 65 per cent drop in use of TConnect since 5G connectivity for all carriers was introduced,” TTC spokesperson Stuart Green tells CityNews.

“And then there’s the cost – $17 million to upgrade the infrastructure to address performance and security issues does not feel like a wise investment. We think our customers would rather see that money spent on our core business – safe and reliable transit service.”

Green says they will continue to work with Rogers to build out the 5G network and enhance connectivity on the TTC while improving the customer experience.

If Rogers completes the 5G rollout, which I am pretty sure that they will as they have the Federal Government holding their feet to the fire, then this is a complete non-issue. Besides, there’s this:

So you might think I am all for this decision. Right? Well. Not quite. The other side of this is that you would have to use 5G or 4G LTE data instead. And since Toronto is part of Canada, and Canada has some of the highest prices on planet Earth for cellular data, that is going to hurt low income people who may not be able to afford a cell phone plan with a lot of data. And there’s the fact that Rogers 5G rollout in the subway isn’t scheduled to be done until 2026. If the the TTC pulled the plug then, I think it would be less of an issue. But the fact that they’re doing it at the end of the year makes this an immediate problem for those on lower incomes. Finally, GO Transit is aggressively rolling out free WiFi on their buses and trains. And both are overseen by the agency that runs Transit in the Greater Toronto Area which is Metrolinx. Which means you have one transit provider who has free WiFi, and one that doesn’t. That doesn’t seem consistent to me.

I don’t know what the right answer is, but my feeling is that the TTC might want to do a rethink of this as I am not sure that they have thought this through completely and taken into account all the various angles of them killing WiFi in the subway system.

This entry was posted on September 15, 2024 at 9:25 am and is filed under Commentary with tags TTC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.