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Montreal’s future wifi network threatened by City (11)

August 24th, 2008 · by Heri · Open Source, Technology

Quebec-Tech had a story this week about Île sans fil’s problems within the Ville de Montréal administration. The non-profit organization, which had earlier this year a plan to blanket the city with free wifi coverage, is discovering endless layers of authorizations, officials and representatives, even though the initial plan was requested by the Ville de Montréal itself.

Daniel Drouet (yeah the same who does this), president of Ile sans fil, is asking the Montréalers who can to weigh in, and get the administration’s act together.

If I have a criticism to make, it’s that the non-profit organized rejoiced and announced too early the deal, putting unnecessary pressure (and hope) on the organization. I have also something against subventions and grants, since it skews a project’s financial figures, making it more vulnerable whenever a politician decides to make a few savings. However, having wide-city wifi coverage for Montreal is something that I’m looking for. The Internet has gone beyond the state of private needs to become a basic and necessary economic infrastructure for a country, in the same way as roads, electricity or running water. As such, the city has the responsability to ensure that Montrealers get a modern, complete and efficient coverage; and also see what’s already being done in other leading cities, such as Paris, Seoul or Taipei. And if there’s one organization that can make it happen, it’s Île sans fil, which now serves 75.000 users, accessing the highest number of hotspots than any other Canadian city, and which also inspired many other organizations such as, ogWifi, ZAP Québec, ZAP Sherbrooke, Montérégie sans-fil, Centre du Québe sans-fil and Wireless Toronto. 

So if you know someone at Ville de Montreal, or know an elected representative, or if you can call directly the City, then make yourself heard. And I really hope the dramatic tone by the article’s author, saying that it would be a critical blow if the deal doesn’t go through, was just an overstatement and not an accurate illustration of the reality.

Update: Daniel Drouet has more details here

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