Today was the official launch for Toronto Hydro Telecom’s One Zone in the downtown core. I wasn’t able to go, but Edward went, and sent some photos and an excellent commentary right after the launch event concluded.

One of the comments he makes, answers a question many of us at Wireless Toronto get when discussing Wi-Fi (commercial or otherwise) in Toronto:

One Zone and WT are in different ‘businesses.’ WT exists to provide free-to-end-user service in indoor and outdoor publicly accessible spaces, with the low-cost service sponsored by the site host or an interested third-party, such as the South St. Lawrence Tenant’s Association at St. Lawrence Market, Kijiji and the Friends of Dufferin Grove and Dufferin Grove Park, or Dundas Square. One Zone is in the business (after the free trial period) of selling a competitively priced WiFi service to single end users in the downtown core ($5 per hour, $10 per day, $29+ per month).

He also reports his first impressions as a user, and well, nobody’s perfect, right? As with other newly launched citywide networks (see Peter Cochrane’s description of his user experience with the Norwich network), THT’s “OneZone” appears to have a few glitches to work out in terms of signal strength and speed.

Anyhow, read on for Edward’s full report… (Thanks Edward!)

Toronto Hydro Telecom: First Impressions

Edward Nixon

Today at the media launch of the One Zone Network today, Mayor David Miller praised Toronto Hydro’s initiative as placing Toronto on the cutting edge of North American cities. Toronto Hydro Telecom President David Dobbin exhorted us to experience the most sophisticated WiFi network in North America with access speeds up to 7 mps.

And yes, all attendees were invited to use it and provided with user name and password. I sent pictures and an e-mail to Wireless Toronto friends. It was a quick enough log in (though I did have to resent my system network preferences) and it worked there inside the TSX main floor office at the street level on the corner of King & York. So far so good.

One Zone Phase 1/2 is up (actually it was, as of last week) from approximately Spadina to Jarvis, Front to Queen, with the further ‘downtown’ roll out up to Bloor (between Spadina and Church) to come by year’s end. What I can tell you is that it works at street level well. It works just inside a street level, window-fronted space. But I thought what the heck, how often do I eat at the First Canadian Place food court? Will it work there? It’s set back about 35 metres from King Street kerb and indoors on the second floor with skylights punctuating the ceiling. Its King Street facing wall is glass, opening onto a second floor terrace overlooking the First Canadian Place parkette (currently under a re-landscaping and refurbishment program).

In the middle of the food court I could just barely pick-up the signal and go to the One Zone log-on page. After 5 minutes, I was able to log onto the main globeandmail.com page, and after one minute read the lead article. I was not able to log into Gmail (the page never loaded) nor was I able to bring up my blogger page.

I moved over to a window seat in the food court (still of course set back from the street edge some 25 metres or a bit more) and did not even (after closing browser andAir Port) get a One Zone signal (Telus and a bunch of others but . . .). So outside to the second-floor terrace, where I am writing this, and yes I did find the signal, though not at full strength (2 bars on theAir Port icon). I was able to open Gmail and blogger, albeit slowly. and got most of this post written in a Gmail window; but when I went to spell check it the signal died. I moved out to the street-level seating (about 6 metres from the kerb) and it was strong enough to revive my page (still only reliably about 2 bars on the Air Port icon). To reliably complete editing and send this post in by e-mail I finally moved to a planter at the very edge of the sidewalk.

At the launch Dobbin said that they had tested the signal up to approximately 40 storeys to an office tech partner Siemens maintains in the financial district. Well and good. I am in no position to dispute that. But one assumes it was a corner office overlooking the street edge.

I bring this up neither to be snide nor to be a Wireless Toronto refusenik. I bring it up as an independent downtown consultant who is an avid user of WIFI – I DEPEND ON IT. So I am in fact, when One Zone’s free service ends on March 6 2007, a potential paying customer.

They are pegging their monthly service charge at $29 per for all access use. Sounds OK, I admit. But it is, as was fairly stated at the media launch, primarily an outdoor service. So in the 6 to at most 8 months (depending on the year and climate change) that one might go outside in Toronto (WiFi enabled smokers are you reading along) One Zone may be useful. However, Toronto Hydro Telecom’s whole concept of a WiFi Zone rather than a WiFi Hot Spot (or a series of interconnected WiFi Hot Spots) needs some examining; especially if one is a potential customer.

You can be sure that if I am doing business in the central core of the city and I want WiFi access fro my notebook, PDA, or phone, I want it inside as well as outside! As a paying customer I will want my e-mail and I will want it now! What I might put up with in a free service—nudging ever closer to the window seat in a cafe in January—I will not be as amenable to for $29++ per month.

In many ways I applaud the idea of One Zone. I don’t see it (speaking only for myself) as competition to community WiFi services such as Wireless Toronto. In fact after next March, demand for Wireless Toronto free-end-to-user hot spots will likely increase.

Truthfully, One Zone and WT are in different ‘businesses.’ WT exists to provide free-to-end-user service in indoor and outdoor publicly accessible spaces, with the low-cost service sponsored by the site host or an interested third-party, such as the South St. Lawrence Tenant’s Association at St. Lawrence Market, Kijiji and the Friends of Dufferin Grove and Dufferin Grove Park, or Dundas Square. One Zone is in the business (after the free trial period) of selling a competitively priced WiFi service to single end users in the downtown core ($5 per hour, $10 per day, $29+ per month).

A key question that remains to be answered is if people like me will pay for a service that (judging it today from the heart of the financial district at King & York) only works well at the street edge, on a patio very close to the sidewalk, or inside a glass-fronted space close to street edge.