Wi-Fi hotspot project aims to give internet access to more Nova Scotians

A new pilot project aims to put technology in the hands of community members across Nova Scotia — with the exception of the Halifax Regional Municipality — by lending free, take-home mobile hotspot devices to people who want wireless internet service.

The community technology group @Nova Scotia (@NS) started the program at the beginning of February.

Erin MacInnis of CBC Radio's Information Morning Halifax spoke to Charlotte Janes, president of @NS about the pilot project which is already proving popular. 

Their conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity and length. 

What is the mandate of @Nova Scotia?

@Nova Scotia's mandate is to put community technology in the hands of community members. We had some grant funding to make technology more accessible and this seems like a good avenue to go with this.

Can you tell me more about how this service started or got off the ground?

We've been talking at @Nova Scotia for a while about how we get hot spots or Wi-Fi devices in people's hands.

The devices we looked at were all very expensive and then we found a company and this is what they do. They make devices, they work on their side to have the providers lined up.

They are covering all of Nova Scotia for us at a very reasonable price, so we were quite excited when we found them.

Who is the grant from?

It's from the federal government for accessibility. 

We shut down with COVID two years ago and provided accessible workstations to community at @Nova Scotia sites throughout the province — adaptive technology in the way of hardware and some software.

This is the next step of that program.

Will this be a permanent service?

This is a pilot project, so we're trying this for a year and we'll see how things go. Right now, a week and a half into this and they're extremely popular.

Public libraries outside of HRM are distribution points for these and as well as some sites that aren't, some @NS sites that aren't associated with libraries.

What's the protocol for borrowing one of these hotspot devices?

We haven't set any criteria. Basically, you come in and ask for one if they're available. We now  have a waiting list on them.

We haven't set any criteria at this point and that's part of the pilot piece of this.

What's the wait time to get a device and how long can you have it once you've obtained one?

You can have it for four weeks, and it's automatically renewed for three-week periods after that if there's no one waiting for it.

Right now we have a waiting list. We probably have three people for each device, so it could be a couple of months before you get one.

Have people jumped at this opportunity?

They have really jumped in the last four or five days. 

We have 20 of the devices in the Annapolis Valley. All together, @NS has 115 of these [devices], so there aren't huge numbers of them. We have a waiting list now.

Do you plan to get more devices depending on how long this goes?

It depends on how long it goes and its popularity.

Some public library systems are loaning these in other provinces and they have criteria that it's for people that don't have Wi-Fi at home. But we haven't set those kinds of criteria around this.

We're just waiting to see how it all goes.

Have you heard why people are so interested in taking these out? Is it because they don't have home Wi-Fi?

We've had people take them because they don't have Wi-Fi at home and others are taking them because it's convenient.

They're going to a cottage or what have you and they want to take it there where they don't have Wi-Fi, for example.

How does the device work exactly?

It has unlimited data and you basically sign in. It gives you a password on the device that you log into your mobile device, your phone or tablet or laptop or computer and you use it that way. It's very simple.

 It's only serviceable where there's mobile phone coverage.

There's a back-end software provided by the company we get them through and if they're not returned on time then we can shut them down so they will no longer work, which we're hoping then prompts people to bring them back because they can't use them anymore.

What else would you say about this new service?

We see it as an opportunity to provide a service to people that may not otherwise have an opportunity to have that service. Libraries are, to me, an equalizer for providing information, and this is just one more step in that direction.

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