The 401 is clearly marked with posts every 2 km. Toronto's exits start about 340. So, if you're doing the very normal 120 km/h (standard cruising speed outside of Toronto), Toronto-Detroit in 3 hours is doable, assuming your butt and bladder can stand it.
The author noted that the project will bring low-cost internet to millions in Toronto.
Toronto has about 2.5 million people. In 2000 (latest year I could find statistics), over
60% had internet access. I would think that number would have increased substantially in the last five years.
Even in the poorest 5% of homes, 10% had internet access in 2000. That's likely grown as well.
Frankly, if you don't have net access in Toronto, it's probably because you don't want it. Toronto Hydro's initiative might be great for mobile computing, and could spawn some new applications, but to think that Toronto has millions of people who are starved for net access is laughable.
"With the exception of Canada, the countries mentioned have a tremendous advanage regarding broadband penetration, and that is relative population density."
This is typical - and I mean this gently - of American ignorance of Canada. About 90% of Canada's population lies within 100 miles of the US border (if you make one little squiggle north to include Edmonton, Alberta). This makes Canada, for all intents and purposes to this discussion, one long, skinny country, with quite noticeable hot spots of population density.
Here's the state of broadband in Toronto: you can get it in four flavours from the local cable monopoly Rogers (aka "Robbers"), "ultralite", "lite", "express" and "extreme". "Extreme" offers 6.0 mps download, 800 kbps upload for $47 Cdn/month (about $40 US). "Ultra-lite" offers 128 kbps down/64 up for $19.95 Cdn/month (about $17 US). The others are obviously in between.
The local phone company (a quasi-monopoly - they have competition but the competitors have negligible market share) offers - wait for it - four flavours of internet access, ranging from "Basic Lite" (128/64 kbps down/up) for $19.95/month, to "High Speed Ultra" offering 5.0 mps down (up not spec'd on their website) for $50 a month. Service is not available in all areas.
Attempts by other firms to provide broadband in Toronto have fizzled for the most part (Sprint Canada, which was offering alternate phone/internet service was recently acquired by Robbers). Attempts to wire up sub-divisions with new providers (when the wiring is cheap) haven't taken off. Point to point service went nowhere.
As someone who worked in marketing for an alternate provider (now out of business), I have to say this: consumers (not slashdotters, but your run of the mill schlub who wants internet for his kids' homework, email, and games) are lazy. Anything that requires effort is too much hard work. They want someone to come to their home, install the service, connect their computer, run the software, etc. To provide that requires massive capitalization up front (to hire and train service advisors, buy trucks, gear, etc.), which most entrepeneurial firms don't have, but which Robbers and Bell have already invested in for their other businesses. So we are left with the two big monopolies fighting against each other - but we still get pretty good service at a pretty good prices.
An interesting side note is the other entities with right of way, trucks, people, and infrastructure - the local power utilities - have been dithering about. Toronto's local electric utility does offer broadband, but only to businesses, and it is mostly marketed as either route diversity or disaster recovery solutions.
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The 401 is clearly marked with posts every 2 km. Toronto's exits start about 340. So, if you're doing the very normal 120 km/h (standard cruising speed outside of Toronto), Toronto-Detroit in 3 hours is doable, assuming your butt and bladder can stand it.
The author noted that the project will bring low-cost internet to millions in Toronto. Toronto has about 2.5 million people. In 2000 (latest year I could find statistics), over 60% had internet access. I would think that number would have increased substantially in the last five years. Even in the poorest 5% of homes, 10% had internet access in 2000. That's likely grown as well. Frankly, if you don't have net access in Toronto, it's probably because you don't want it. Toronto Hydro's initiative might be great for mobile computing, and could spawn some new applications, but to think that Toronto has millions of people who are starved for net access is laughable.
"With the exception of Canada, the countries mentioned have a tremendous advanage regarding broadband penetration, and that is relative population density."
This is typical - and I mean this gently - of American ignorance of Canada. About 90% of Canada's population lies within 100 miles of the US border (if you make one little squiggle north to include Edmonton, Alberta). This makes Canada, for all intents and purposes to this discussion, one long, skinny
country, with quite noticeable hot spots of population density.
Here's the state of broadband in Toronto: you can get it in four flavours from the local cable monopoly Rogers (aka "Robbers"), "ultralite", "lite", "express" and "extreme". "Extreme" offers 6.0 mps download, 800 kbps upload for $47 Cdn/month (about $40 US). "Ultra-lite" offers 128 kbps down/64 up for $19.95 Cdn/month (about $17 US). The others are obviously in between.
The local phone company (a quasi-monopoly - they have competition but the competitors have negligible market share) offers - wait for it - four flavours of internet access, ranging from "Basic Lite" (128/64 kbps down/up) for $19.95/month, to "High Speed Ultra" offering 5.0 mps down (up not spec'd on their website) for $50 a month. Service is not available in all areas.
Attempts by other firms to provide broadband in Toronto have fizzled for the most part (Sprint Canada, which was offering alternate phone/internet service was recently acquired by Robbers). Attempts to wire up sub-divisions with new providers (when the wiring is cheap) haven't taken off. Point to point service went nowhere.
As someone who worked in marketing for an alternate provider (now out of business), I have to say this: consumers (not slashdotters, but your run of the mill schlub who wants internet for his kids' homework, email, and games) are lazy. Anything that requires effort is too much hard work. They want someone to come to their home, install the service, connect their computer, run the software, etc. To provide that requires massive capitalization up front (to hire and train service advisors, buy trucks, gear, etc.), which most entrepeneurial firms don't have, but which Robbers and Bell have already invested in for their other businesses. So we are left with the two big monopolies fighting against each other - but we still get pretty good service at a pretty good prices.
An interesting side note is the other entities with right of way, trucks, people, and infrastructure - the local power utilities - have been dithering about. Toronto's local electric utility does offer broadband, but only to businesses, and it is mostly marketed as either route diversity or disaster recovery solutions.