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Toronto Hydro Launches Free Wi-Fi Network

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the everything's-bigger-in-canada dept.

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.

19 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Oh to hack.. by Siberwulf · · Score: 2, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Oh to hack.. by geoffspear · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oddly enough, many Toronto residents for some reason don't qualify for a SSN.

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    2. Re:Oh to hack.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      So *you're* the guy who goes around explaining jokes. Speaking of which, I've been wondering the meaning of the chicken crossing the road one. Can you do that?

  2. Whoo. by tygerstripes · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Hmm. Impressive? The City of Norfolk in Norwich, UK, would beg to differ. To whit:
    a 4km radius from County Hall, as well as key sites to the east and west of the city: Broadland Business Park , University of East Anglia , Norwich Science Park and Norfolk & Norwich University Hospital. In addition 28 hotspots in South Norfolk will be enabled shortly.
    That's pretty decent coverage for a back-water city in UK farmer country, and it's free. Kind of throws some context into this article, I reckon.
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  3. Disposable cell phones... by denis-The-menace · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I wanted to use this network for bad things I would just have to get a Disposable cell phone and go from there.

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    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
    1. Re:Disposable cell phones... by Thansal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I worked in RS for a year or so.

      Walk in, ask for prepaid phone, give false info (no ID checked), pay with cash, walk out. I have sold phones to people I am relativly sure were ussing them for illicit goals, however I can't simply not sell them the phone as that is illegal :D

      On top of that msot prepaid phones can have their phone numbers changed with little or no hastle!

      If that isn't disposable, I don't know what is.

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      Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
    2. Re:Disposable cell phones... by nojomofo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Shhhh..... Don't say that too loud. What they need (and using cell phone number provides) is the appearance of preventing the four horsemen from being able to use the service for their goals. It's a nice, big loophole for those who actually want privacy and freedom to slip through.

  4. I have a land line, you insensitive clod! by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful
    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.

    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?)

    1. Re:I have a land line, you insensitive clod! by Jonny_eh · · Score: 3, Funny

      Don't forget the $500-$2000 setup fee for people who don't have a computer.

  5. Quick note about cell number ussage by Thansal · · Score: 4, Informative

    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).

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    Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
  6. Free? by Otter · · Score: 4, Funny
    Toronto Hydro Launches Free Wi-Fi Network

    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.

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  7. Re:Disposable cell phones...useless to reply to AC by non · · Score: 2, Informative

    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?

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    ...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
  8. Just to clarify... by k4_pacific · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Toronto Hydro is the power company, not the water company. Just in case you were wondering.

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    1. Re:Just to clarify... by kripkenstein · · Score: 3, Funny

      Toronto Hydro is the power company, not the water company. Just in case you were wondering.

      Electricity, water, whatever. Just as long as we are clear that the internet is, in fact, a series of pipes.

      Sure, here we have wi-fi for part of the way, but after that it's pipes galore.

  9. Free for limited time by Midnight+Thunder · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

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  10. Re:Marketing Buttwipes by rikkards · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah but the way Torontonians talk, they are Canada so it would be equivalent as "City-wide" :)

  11. "largest" in north america? by kbaud · · Score: 2, Informative
    Maybe the reporter hasn't done much research on wifi. There are several municipal networks in north america that are much larger than 6 square km. Maybe they meant the program was larger in some other aspect?

    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

  12. Re:NOT city wide coverage! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The server is 6 sq. km now. It will grow to include everything between the 427 and the DVP on the east and west and between the 401 and the lake by December. We had Toronto Hydro in to talk to us about their services two months ago and they showed us their coverage map.

  13. Re:Marketing Buttwipes by canadiangoose · · Score: 2, Informative

    They've definately got the downtown core covered. Besides, it's my understanding that this is just the first phase of the network, and that the coverage will expand to include the entire Greater Toronto Area, suburbs and all. The Ontario provincial governement has legislated that all homes be equiped with "smart metres" that bill the consumer for elictricity at different rates based on the time of day. Smart metres require two-way communication with the power company, and the wifi network is being put up to facilitate that communication. Being able to sell internet access to people is just an added bonus. Heck, I was hoping that because the network was being put up to satisfy a legal requirement on the part of the hydro company, and it is technically paid for already through my electricity bill, that it would be free. Oh well. It ain't free, but it's advertised to be much faster than I had though and I'm keen to try it. Here's a link that talks about the legislation. It's from Hamilton, not Toronto, but whatever. The legislation regarding the smart metres is the same. http://www.bbwexchange.com/publications/page1263-2 065753.asp

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