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Toronto to Become One Huge Hotspot
8127972 writes "The Toronto Star is reporting that Toronto Hydro is about to announce plans to make all of Toronto Canada a huge wireless hotspot. The project could go live as early as this fall and hopes to bring low cost Internet access to millions of Toronto citizens. In the process it will challenge the Canadian telcos for a share of the $8 billion (CDN) a year wireless market."
Ummmm maybe you need to look before you write - Toronto Hydro is not owned by the Canadian government.... not to mention there are like 10 different telco's in Toronto (ie Rogers, Bell, Telus etc.)
Rogers and Bell both operate HotSpot services in Canada.. Look for HotSpot stickers on the doors of your local Starbucks or Second Cup - as well as other places. They'll even charge it to your Bell or Rogers mobile phone bill...I think all the big Canadian mobile phone providers are in on the action.. even Telus.
_ services/hotspot.asp
. Solutions.Hotspots.page
s /hotspot.shtml
http://www.shoprogers.com/business/wireless/plans
http://www.bell.ca/shop/en_CA_BC/Sme.Sol.Wireless
http://www.telusmobility.com/on/business_solution
Yes they mean cell phones. You must be the only one in the country who missed those annoying Bell ads during the olympics... what did you think they were talking about when they said Bell's network was faster than Rogers'? Did you see the PCMCIA card those fscking beavers were promoting? Hey, it's 3G wireless access via Bell. Telus and Rogers sell their own versions of the same thing. And yeah, data rates on the telcos networks aren't cheap.
What really upsets the telcos is that if you've got 802.11 wireless all over a city you might as well carry a wireless SIP phone rather than a traditional GSM/CDMA cell phone. Whether you tie it into an Asterisk PBX or the type of VOIP systems that Vonage, Shaw, etc are touting doesn't really matter as long as you are avoiding the per minute traditional cell rates and their insance long distance. It'd even make City Fido at $50 a month look expensive.
I'm admittedly guessing, but I think that figure probably includes a whole lot of wireless technologies, not all of which are available to the average consumer. Yes, it includes cell technologies (GPRS being a completely acceptable -- if not hugely expensive -- way of accessing the Internet) -- cell technologies probably make up the great bulk of that figure. However, there are fee-based WiFi Hotspot providers here in Canada (generally in the larger centres), so they probably get counted too (such providers typically only provide service in specific venues -- for example, Bell AccessZone, which provides WiFi service in the Air Canada Centre, and in VIA Rail first class lounges (and on in first class sections of the Toronto - Montreal corridor trains).
It may also count satellite-based Internet, and could also possibly include microwave uplinks available to corporations. Without a breakdown it is difficult to know -- it appears to me that they're just throwing out a Really Big Number for investors to chew on. After all, who doesn't want a slice off of a Really Big Pie?
Yaz.
MetroFi is just completing the rollout of citywide free wireless service for
Sunnyvale, California. Here in the heart of Silicon Valley. There are no
commercial wireless offerings that I know of, so there is no loss to the
ISP industry.
Also here in Silicon Valley, dsl is slow ( phone wires are old everywhere)
cable is the only real option and there are no plans for FIOS here either.
So I say to the greedy ISP's:
Suck It!
Actually, it's not the same company that had a "debt repayment" charge added to every consumer's bill. That was Ontario Hydro.
Rate Plan
yes, I thought it's free. no, it's not.
Think you mean Ontario Hydro - not Toronto Hydro. TH merely bills you.
FAQ here
You should take a look at this graph
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I actually spoke to some local Toronto(ans? ites?)
;-)
Torontonians, actually. But most just say "I'm from Trawna".
If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
funny, last i checked, bell was the only telco with landlines in toronto. or ontario for that matter.
rogers -- cable company, primarily ontario, and national cellular provider. rolling out voip service. swapped cable territories with shaw, now rumoured to be buying shaw. one cable company for all!
telus -- ilec in bc and alberta, national cellular provider by buying out clearnet. rolling out tv service, wireless data service.
fido -- national cellular provider, now owned by rogers.
shaw -- cable company, western canada. rolling out voip service.
bell -- largest telco in canada, ilec in ontario and quebec. national cellular service, national satellite service. rolling out nationwide wireless data service.
sprint -- clec offering mainly business long distance service. partnered with fido for a home/cellular package.
at&t -- bought by manitoba telecom, renamed allstream.
despite the "deregulation" and "competition" introduced several years ago to canadian telecommunications, the only clec to make any use of it is really primus, who offer landline and long distance service, leased from whoever the ilec is in that province.
and, why can't americans ever get a canadian city location right? it's toronto ontario, not toronto canada. that's like saying chicago usa. how fitting. my confirmation word is gagging.
AFAIK we were the first city in NA to impliment it.
NO registration required (though you must agree to the EULA at sign on), and the city actually makes money from the ancillary services the municipal network provides to companies. A win-win in my book.
I'm not sure where you mean, but it isn't illegal to have a wind generator north of the city. If I remember correctly, the ontario gov't was even offering a subsidy for people wanting to put one up. Now, if you tried putting one up in a subdivision, then I can see a problem as no one wants to have a 40 ft tower casting a shadow over their backyard.
Yellowknife is considered a city because it's a capital ... though we only have like ~20,000 people... a company called SSI Micro has basically blanketed the city with WiFi...
http://www.ssimicro.com/
Yay we're on the bleeding edge North of 60!
8 billion CAD at today's conversion (March 6th, 2006) is: 0.877586
:)
So 8 billion x 0.877586 is: $7,020,688,000 USD just over 7 billion.
So they're going after a 7 billion USD market.
So I could walk around town using my voip phone instead of a cell phone? Maybe just my PDA with a VOIP client? GoogleTalk for all local calls!? w00t!
Well, you could walk around between calls, because last I checked 802.11 soft handoffs did not exist. You could implement it in the hardware, but it'll still be hard handoffs.
I used to live in rural Manitoba (the boondocks), and nearly everyone had multiple hunting rifles, and the occasional shotgun - so I can pretty much confirm that (a) it's probably true, (b) it's people in the boonies, and (c) they're hunting rifles for animals, not hunting pistols for people.
Not me, though, although I did target shooting every once in a while.
Hofstadter's Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law.