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Toronto Hydro Launches Free Wi-Fi Network
k. writes to let us know about the launch Wednesday of Toronto Hydro's city-wide Wi-Fi network, at 6 square kilometers said to be the largest in North America by the time rollout is complete in December. The service will be free for 6 months and then will cost $29 (Canadian) per month, $10 for a day, or $5 for an hour. Toronto Hydro gets around fears of the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse by requiring use of one's cell-phone number as the user ID.
Toronto Hydro gets around fears of the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse by requiring use of one's cell-phone number as the user ID.
Oh to hack that database... It would probably be better just to submit your SSN in plaintext.
Meta will eat itself
If I wanted to use this network for bad things I would just have to get a Disposable cell phone and go from there.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
I wouldn't touch that network for the price they want. Way to pricey!
Athiesm is a religion like not collecting stamps is a hobby.
So for people who rely on a land-line telephone, it isn't 30 CAD per month; it's 60, including the cost of a cell phone. (Or am I completely off about what cell phone contracts cost in Canada?)
terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers huh? I'd take money launderers over murderers any day of the week! We're saying it's worse to cover up a bit of white collar crime than it is to kill someone?
"I threw up my hands in disgust and wondered if it had been such a good idea to have eaten my hands in the first place."
from TFA # Enter your mobile phone number in the space provided. # You will instantly receive a text message containing your username and password. # Enter your username and password. # Start surfing. # Your username and password will remain valid for free service until March 2007 Your cell number is not your ID, they are just ussing a cell number much like you would use an E-Mail for registering for a forum or some such, Kinda like how GMail is giving out accounts (or was, I don't remember if it is still up). This is not designed as a counter to the 4 horsemen scare, infact it would be horribly easy for any one to obtain as many anon logins as they wanted via use of prepaid phones and changing the hpone numbers (something even prepaid accounts let you do).
Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
FTA:
To gain access to One Zone WiFi follow the easy steps below.
Open your WiFi enabled device Use the network connections manager on your WiFi enabled device to view available wireless networks. Select the SSID One Zone_High Speed Internet Open your web browser and visit the new user page. Enter your mobile phone number in the space provided. You will instantly receive a text message containing your username and password. Enter your username and password. Start surfing. Your username and password will remain valid for free service until March 2007
So what is to stop people from giving their username/password combos to their friends, or posting them in public places? Currently it's free, so maybe it's no big deal, but how about when it's a pay-for service? I wonder if a particular username can only be logged in on one device at a time? Or perhaps the username/password expires periodically (monthly if you don't pay your bill, and at the end of the "free" period in March 2007)?
The more you regulate a company, the worse its products become.
Wow. That's great. As someone who lives in Toronto, I'm glad to see that we have a Wi-Fi network in the downtown core...but personally, I would rather have Toronto Hydro work on retiring the money it owes to tax payers in the form of debt versus starting up a new business it has no expertise in.
I suppose the people who might buy into this are those with mobile wifi devices who have cash to burn. The whole blackberry-type crowd doesn't need this service and for home users it's too pricey. You can get broadband DSL or cable in Canada for $29 per month. It seems kind of niche to me.
This sig contains a manual self-destruct. Kindly please put your foot through your monitor in 8 seconds.
I cannot see anywhere in the article (or the original site itself) where they are using any encryption whatsoever, it looks kinda unsecure to me. Yeah, the article says its as risky as wired access, but AFAIK no one is tapping my DSL line ;)
Going on means going far
Going far means returning
As if things weren't complicated enough, now we have free-as-in-speech, free-as-in-beer, and free-as-in-$5/hour..
Incidentally, if a digitalnetizengeezerologism like "The Four Horsemen" has caught on so poorly that you need to link to some netidinoWiredsaur's email from 1995, it's probably not worth hanging on to.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Does this sound a little steep to anyone? If I was on a business trip it would be more feesible to go with the monthly plan.
Can I bum a sig?
no, the (grand)parent is correct. i'm curioius, what do you know about 'anywhere in the world'? in fact disposable handhelds have been available for at least ten years in countries that are generally referred to as 3rd world. take chile for example, or mexico.
perhaps you followed the vodaphone scandal in greece this spring, whereby telephone network software was hacked in order to route communication to one of a number of 'disposable' phones? you can buy them at tag sales; do you really think that they're going to ask for your ID at a tag sale?
...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
$29 (Canadian) per month, $10 for a day, or $5 for an hour.
$29 per month = $29 for one month
$10 for a day = approx $300 per month
$5 an hour = approx $3600 per month
Agreed, $10 and $5 both sound steep!
Toronto Hydro is the power company, not the water company. Just in case you were wondering.
Unknown host pong.
I know Toronto Hydro is not the first entity to use electricity lines and WIFI as a means of acessing the internet.
What I am saying is that poor nations of the world, with old school telephone lines that are non existent or so bad, could use their electricity lines to provide internet access. The number of electricity users in these countries is always greater than landline users.
These folks can count on "friendly" Canada and Toronto Hydro for lessons in setup.
Where I live... in a socialistic country in the nothern part of Europe, you can get a GSM-phone and/or a SIM-card (with a phone number) without showing any ID-card whatsoever, completely legally. Just walk into the government-owned shops and get it over the desk. The prepaid card may not work in USA/Canada though.
terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers, oh my!
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
Free at 29,95$ per month is not so free in my book. Way to mislead with the title there, poster!
It should be noted that it is only free for the initial trial period. Then, if experience of other city Wi-Fi solutions is anything to go by, then the hourly rate will be more than a days worth of home DSL.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Its free for the first 6 months then they charge you 29$..... Last I checked both Bell and Rogers both have a 3 Months "Free" then bend you over a fence policy also. My definition of "Free" must be different than other peoples. I thought it meant something you didn't have to pay for, ever. Really because as soon as that "ever" kicks in, it ain't really free anymore, is it?
Anyway still pretty cool though, good for Hydro and TO. Wee!
Isn't $30 a month kind of stiff?
The government can't save you.
How does "city-wide" equal 6 sq. km?
In Toronto, 6 sq. km is a small fraction of the city.
This is NOT "city-wide".
Fscking Liars.
At least in the United States, a prepaid account can no longer place or receive calls if it has not been "topped up" in the last x days. Then, assuming we're still in Canadian dollars, it's $70 + $45/mo including monthly top-up cards. Or are network operators forbidden to expire accounts this way in Canada?
Because then somebody else would receive the SMS containing the password to the network, not you. But for one thing, this invite system (also used by Gmail) doesn't discourage nigga stole my phone. For another, the question remains: Why can't land-line phones receive SMS?
Portland, OR. is getting 134 sq miles of free wifi. Slower speeds will be ad supported, faster speeds you can pay for.
Much better sounding project than America's hat is trying for.
Basically, yeah. And it's not like the pedophile thing is new (the ancient greeks were into that stuff big time) or like it's going away anytime soon, no matter how harsh the penalties are. The best thing parents can do is to monitor their kids closely, instead of relying on the government asshats (most of who couldn't care less about your kid anyway).
The media and government are just in it for the money/power, and that's the way it's always been and always will be. If you don't like that, then do your part to castrate them in any which way you can. Stop giving them power!
The summary is wrong.
This is *NOT* city wide coverage; TFA claims it's just from from Jarvis to Spadina, and from Bloor to Front Street. That's a tiny fraction of Toronto. My house isn't covered. My work isn't covered. Most people won't be affected by this; the coverage area houses a few office towers and a lot of shops, and nightclubs. While shopping, or clubbing, and you won't be using your wifi for either of those.
If they had put the wifi down near the waterfront, so that people could lounge on the beaches with their laptops, that would be cool. Tourists wandering around the CN tower could play with their wifi there.
Personally, I don't care so much about wifi downtown. I'd prefer wifi on the subway; I spend 40 minutes a day just sitting quietly.
Not that it's very likely; the TTC won't even give me cell phone service on the subway, and they've got the hardware in place for that. The TTC thinks it should be able to charge the telcos for using their network, the telcos think they should get it for free, 911 actually works on the subway system, but no one will ever call it because everyone thinks they have no cell service underground... it's a mess of politics.
Still, putting wifi where people would *use* it would be. But, oh, well... I guess it's a start.
So if I buy 3 days of service, or 6 discontiguous hours of service, I could've just as easily bought the entire month? Just give out the monthly fee, and use the savings of managing those other plans to offer it cheaper!
stuff |
I tried the One Zone service yesterday from Queens and University. I didn't need to authenticate (didn't have to create a user account or provide my cell phone number). I just connected as you would to any free unsecure hot spot.
Well I know it doesn't work in the rest of the world, but in the US we still have five horsemen!
Every time Bush says "safeguard our way of life" or mentions the "free market", he's referring to our Number 5.
Google brought up a Business Week article with the top 10 city networks. Some are over 100 sq miles in size:
http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/08/muni_wifi/ index_01.htm
I'd hardly call that free.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Come to Toronto, where the healthcare system is... ooh, umm, no nevermind...
Come to Toronto, where the beer is-- yeesh, hmmm...
Hey, we have free internet! Yay!!!
If it's not free in "free speech", then it is free in "free cake".
If the first bite of the cake is free, and you have to pay for the rest, then it is not free.
http://www.fred-ezone.com/coverage.php And it does a fair bit of the city too.
It's going to cost $29 a month. Like a lot of services they'll offer a free trial, in this case for six months.
Saying this network is free is like saying that Crest toothpaste is free because Procter and Gamble mailed you a free sample--or saying that cars are free because the salesperson offers you a free test drive.
Insert witty sig here.
With this WiFi coverage I wouldn't a cell phone. I rarely travel that far from my house and would just carry my cordless IP phone with me...
"terrorists, pedophiles, drug dealers, and money launderers"
Remember when it used to be blacks, gays, jews and communists? Or when it was alcohol, nudity / skinny dipping, women voting, and comic books?
Don't worry, I'm sure a new set of of bugaboos will be comin' around the corner.
I don't have a cell phone, you insensitive clod!
the city of salamanca in Chile just enabled free wifi for the entire city of 25,000. This is in spanish. http://www.salamanca.cl/wifi/salamancavuela.htm
I live in Toronto, and have actually tried to connect to this service quite a few times this morning.
Everytime I get "There was an error joining the AirPort network "One Zone_High Speed Internet"" (I am using MacBook Pro, by the way).
Has anyone been able to establish a connection today?
http://dtum.livejournal.com
They happen to own the poles they're sticking the WiFi routers on. Little R2D2 lookin' things made by Siemens.
For the first (free) 6 months, you can't change your user ID or password, according to the FAQ in the linked article. They plan to let you, later on.
It's great to see this type of thing coming up in the world. I gives my hope for my own business plan. I just hope that the screen isn't riddled with ads.
I find that hard to believe... the tiny city where I live has a WiFi network at least 5 times that size.
Look at the coverage area, then look at the Wikipedia entry - 131 square km in the city. The WiFi covers at least 25% of the city, or 33 square KM.
The only way this Toronto network could be called the "largest" would be if it was by population livig in the blanketed area. Not much of an achievement IMO.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1894760,00.as p?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594
It's been up for a while now (I live in Tempe), but it's not free....
The reason why Toronto Hydro is getting involved in Wifi is that they plan to replace all electricity meters in the city with Wifi-enabled ones that they can read (and reprogram) remotely. That's Phase III.
To accomplish this, they plan to get the public to fund the setup of a Wifi mesh covering the whole city through revenues Toronto Hydro gains from Wifi hotspots. That's Phase II.
To attract paying Wifi customers, they're handing out free service for a few months, starting now. That's Phase I.
The project will be complete by the end of the year. Only the first part is live now, whoever wrote this article made an error and the slashdot readers are thinking the first part deployed is the only one thats going to be there. I can tell you its a great service!
So now it's a matter of simply consolidating your position. You can live in denial and go along as though nothing is wrong (and mod posters like me into dust to make the bad thinkings go away), or accept the fact that our governments and corporations very deliberately work to make us stupid and easily controlled, and then react to that knowledge in an appropriate manner.
I'm glad I moved out of that concrete & steel hell-on-earth. It was one of the best things I ever did for myself; I feel many times healthier and happier.
-FL
That should be spelt Vodafone.
Minneapolis is soon to become the largest wifi hotspot at 54 square Miles. http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/wirelessminneapoli s/nextsteps.asp#TopOfPage