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."

Comments

Pisses me off.

[Yo Grark]

This is the same company that went to the regulators and begged to have a "debt repayment" charge added to every consumer regardless if you were part of the original debt problem. Imagine being able to charge customers for your incompetance and making it clear you were doing so!

You may think that having Toronto as one huge hotspot, and I might even think it was cool too if these weren't true:

1. It's illegal to go off the grid.
2. I'm paying for Toronto Hydro's "debt" which consisted of millions of dollars in self-appointed executive bonuses, even when they had severly unbalanced budgets.
3. Toronto Hydro has blocked a lot of "green" ideas, every step of the way. Including subsidies to alleviate power problems.
4. We pay almost almost 10.00 per kw solar power/panel to make sure it's not a viable option.
5. Powering your house by Wind Power is illegal through "sound governance bilaws" even though the noise is quieter than an air conditioner.
6. They artificially "Froze" prices because of public pressure only to raise prices overall to MORE than it would have cost in the first place.

End Rant. Sorry, but it seems like a really cool thing, but like every other cool thing, this will come on the backs of those consumers who have no other choice but to allow them to spend money frivilously.

Yes I have options to go to "brokers", yes I have options to go "all gas", but when I investigated thouse routes, believe it or not, Toronto Hydro was the lesser of all evils.

Yo Grark

Go Canada

[jshackles]

This is just one more reason I need to move to Canada. As if I needed a reason.

How many cities?

[slagheap]

These types of stories pop up on Slashdot once in a while... "City X to implement citywide wireless". I was just wondering what other cities have announced such plans. Which ones actually have working systems today?

Slagheap