The new Wi-Fi deal struck by the City of Winnipeg and MTS is a terrible deal for Winnipeggers. In exchange for a portion of the revenue -- ostensibly to pay the mere $23,000 it cost to install the system in 20 library branches and one public pool -- the city gave MTS five years to charge $3 per hour for the service. In addition to the fee, MTS also benefits by having exclusive use of city-owned property to hawk its wares and recruit new business.
Three dollars an hour is a gouge. An entire month on a private plan from MTS costs around $41 for speeds higher than most users can realize with current wireless technology. Allowing a private firm to control and profit from an information service offered within publicly owned libraries undermines the goal of these institutions, which I always assumed was to provide such services free of charge (or at least paid for by civic taxes).
With reference to the new service fees Mayor Sam Katz cynically pronounced: "There's no such thing as free service." Now, granted no library is under any obligation to provide a free wireless service, but given that Winnipeg libraries already provide free Internet to patrons with cards and enough patience to wait for a terminal, why should it not strive to provide a wireless signal for free to people who have their own equipment? If it was not possible to provide wireless to all city libraries due to budget constraints, would it not have been preferable to build these capabilities into the main branches first, and then later equip the satellites, as funds became available?
The mayor said that part of the reason the city did this was to be "hip." How hip is it for Winnipeg to charge an inflated $3 per hour for what many other cities in North America offer for free?
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