ZAP Montérégie

« Montérégie sans fil » is changing its name to
« ZAP Montérégie »

Yes, in the weeks to come, we will become “ZAP Montérégie”.  Only our name and web site will change.  We are the same non-profit organization with the same team members.  Your user names and passwords will remain unchanged.  Our web site “monteregiesansfil.org” will be replaced by “zapmonteregie.org”.  This site already exists and you can add it to your favourites.

Why this change? ZAP is an acronym for Zone d’Accès Public (hotspot) and was developed by “ZAP Québec”.  We believe that it clearly reflects our mission.  Furthermore, the designation “ZAP” followed by the geographical area is already used in the province with “ZAP Sherbrooke”, “ZAP Québec” and “ZAP Bas St-Laurent”.  Our use of the ZAP acronym will increase its visibility.  With our name change, there will be 450 ZAP hotspots in Québec with thousands of users.

This approach also enables us to create a “ZAP” which is specific to a smaller area within the Montérégie.  For instance, a municipality with several ZAP hotspots could ask us to create “ZAP name of the municipality”.

In spite of this name change, our mission remains unchanged.  We are still members of “l’alliance communautaire du sans-fil (Alliance CSF)” which regroups close to 200,000 users and 700 hotspots in the province of Québec.  We aim at providing free wireless internet service to users at reduced cost for the hotspot owners because we are a non-profit organization. We believe this is a win-win arrangement for the users and the hotspot owners.

So don’t be surprised if, in the near future, you can’t seem to find “Montérégie sans fil”.  Simply log into “ZAP Montérégie”.

The “Centre multifonctionnel de Boucherville” becomes the 48th Montérégie sans fil hotspot

After the Boucherville municipal library, the « Centre multifonctionnel de Boucherville » now has free wireless internet access thanks to an agreement with Montérégie sans fil.  This facility contains multiple conference rooms of different sizes which are available for various uses. The main organizations using the centre are:

• Action Santé 50 ans et +
• Ateliers d’arts visuels de Boucherville
• Bambinerie
• Cadets de l’aviation
• Centre de Yoga de Boucherville
• Club astronomes amateurs Boucherville-Montérégie
• Club de karaté Sankudo de Boucherville
• Club d’escrime le Fleuret d’argent
• École de danse de Boucherville
• Programme de formation continu des personnes aînées
• Société de Micro-informatique de Boucherville
• Sport-Études karaté
• Théâtre JanKiJou et NezRond

For more information on this facility, you can visit the web site : « www.centremulti.qc.ca ».

The Chambly municipal library is the 8th public library to become a “Montérégie sans fil” hotspot

Having a «Montérégie sans fil» hotspot is popular in municipal libraries and there are several good reasons for this. On one hand, many subscribers to public libraries, many of which are students, have a laptop computer with Wifi capabilities.  They sometimes don’t have access to high speed internet at home so the public library offers the service for free.  Furthermore, they can perform various types of work and prepare reports, either for school or other, directly on the premises where they have access to the documentation.

On the other hand, there are also benefits for the library.  Foremost is the fact that due to the free internet access provided by the hotspot, several subscribers use their own computer. This generates substantial savings for the libraries:

• Less computers provided by the library means equipment and maintenance savings
• Less management of user access because we have a user authentication server to manage access to the hotspot
• Fewer computer reservations which means less management
• Increased number of subscribers due to the added service

Aside from Chambly, the other libraries which have a «Montérégie sans fil» hotspot are:

• Bibliothèque de Boucherville
• Bibliothèque de Brossard
• Bibliothèque de Saint-Bruno
• Bibliothèque de Saint-Lambert
• Bibliothèque de Saint-Marc-sur-Richelieu
• Bibliothèque Sainte-Rosalie
• Bibliothèque T.-A.-St-Germain

Given the substantial number of public libraries in the Montérégie, there is significant potential for some of them to also become a «Montérégie sans fil» hotspot.  Buy doing so, they could save money and provide a value added service to their subscribers.