BC Ferries says Wi-Fi is now available to travellers at 14 small ferry terminals on Vancouver Island and the B.C. Gulf Islands, bringing the total number of terminals with free Wi-Fi access to 21.
The Wi-Fi project was funded through a provincial grant of $1.5 million from the Ministry of Citizens Services program Connecting British Columbia.
The Wi-Fi is available in terminal buildings, passenger lounges, vehicle holding compounds and parking lots.
The ferry operator says Wi-Fi users will not be asked to provide any personal information, such as credit card info, to use the public Wi-Fi. Any open Wi-Fi service that claims to be BC Ferries and does ask for personal info at a terminal should be reported to a ferries attendant, the company says.
The 14 terminals with the newly installed Wi-Fi service are:
- Cormorant Island (Alert Bay)
- Cortes Island (Whaletown)
- Denman Island East (Gravelly Bay)
- Gabriola Island (Descanso Bay)
- Galiano Island (Sturdies Bay)
- Mayne Island (Village Bay)
- Nanaimo (Nanaimo Harbour)
- Pender Island (Otter Bay)
- Port Hardy (Bear Cove)
- Quadra Island (Heriot Bay)
- Salt Spring Island (Long Harbour)
- Salt Spring Island (Vesuvius Bay)
- Saturna Island (Lyall Harbour)
- Vancouver Island (Buckley Bay)
BC Ferries says it is working to extend free Wi-Fi service to its remaining terminals "in the near future."
The ferry company removed onboard Wi-Fi access from its largest vessels last year after complaints about its quality and reliability.
The company says its land-based "ship-to-shore" network used wireless radios, which couldn't handle the volume of Wi-Fi demand on its vessels.
Replacing the radio-based Wi-Fi with a satellite or cellular system would be too costly and "we would need to pass these costs on to our customers," BC Ferries says.
