We’re happy to announce our latest hotspot. Sneaky Dee’s, a Toronto institution, is now live for wifi upstairs and down.
Newest hotspot, Sneaky Dee’s
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Monthly Archives: January 2007
ITWorldCanada.com: Tale of two cities – WiFi gap between Fredericton and Toronto
http://www.itworldcanada.com:80/a/Voice-Data-and-IP/4f9ac4d0-9419-4af9-94fb-73a73dea7405.html
Tale of two cities – WiFi gap between Fredericton and Toronto
By: Nestor Arellano
ITWorldCanada.com (25 Jan 2007)
In a little more than a month from now, users of the country’s largest WiFi network – Toronto’s recently launched One Zone – will begin paying up to $29 a month for the privilege of cruising the information highway wirelessly.
By contrast, residents of City of Fredericton, New Brunswick will continue to enjoy free access to Fred e Zone, their city’s older, though weaker, WiFi network.
The WiFi divide between the two cities resides not in technology or funding but rather in vision and political will, according to an information studies professor.
The City of Fredericton and the Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc. (THT) made separate presentations on their respective WiFi networks at the Wireless Cities Summit in Toronto yesterday.
“Fredericton had the political will to stick to their objective of providing WiFi as a public service; our city did not,” said Andrew Clement, professor of information studies at the Knowledge Media Design Institute of the University of Toronto.
Toronto Hydro Telecom, the quasi-private corporation that owns One Zone, set out to build a paid service instead, said Clement.
He said One Zone has the more robust system that can penetrate the city core’s buildings and “urban canyons” while Fred e Zone was designed for lighter use.
Divergent “visions and ambitions” fueled the two cities’ quest for a WiFi network, according to Clement.
In 1997, Fredericton was paying premium fees to a telecom company for connectivity because there was no competition in their area and no market pressure to drive prices down, said Maurice Gallant, the city’s chief information officer (CIO). “We were paying three times the prices people in Toronto were paying.”
This drove the city of some 80,000 residents to consider, in 2000, to becoming its own wireless service provider.
Fredericton created a not-for-profit telecom co-operative called the e-Novations ComNet Inc. after learning Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) rules forbade governments from deploying network hardware on existing telephone and electric poles but allowed access to entities that compete with incumbent telecom companies.
The co-op was able to recruit 35 key businesses and organizations that became the paying subscribers. The rest of the users have free access because they consume the excess broadband that subscribers are not using.
Fredericton used city structures such as water towers, buildings and traffic lights to install transmitters. The first phase of the project cost $150,000 and the city provided an additional $300,000 for further expansion.
To date, Fredericton has more than 1,200 802.11 g WiFi access points. Gallant said Fredericton sees Fred e Zone as an “intellectual city structure” that should be open to the public. “You don’t charge people for walking on the sidewalk or strolling in the park. Why should you charge them for WiFi access?”
He admitted the network had some shortcomings. It cannot reach everyone and “theoretically free users might not be able to gain access if all the 35 subscribers decided to use up all their bandwidth at the same time.”
“No other city government is in the type of project we’re in because they can’t find the profit in it. But don’t ask me about ROI (return of investment), because we’re not looking for it,” said Gallant.
Sharyn Gravelle, vice-president, wireless, THT, holds a different view. “Wi-Fi networks shouldn’t be funded through taxes,” she says.
Toronto Hydro chose a “sustainable”, paid-for model for One Zone because the corporation “is not a part of the city or the public-private environment and has an obligation to its shareholders to turn in a profit,” said Gravelle. One Zone now covers a high density area of roughly six square kilometers, encompassing 235 city blocks. It offers connection speeds of up to seven megabits per second.
THT purchased light posts within the WiFi zone for $60 million and perched WiFi gear on every fourth or fifth pole.
Gravelle said Toronto Hydro Telecom is targeting a $2 million profit from most corporate users and hopes to recoup its investments within a year. The more profit One Zone makes, the more dividends Toronto Hydro shareholders get, she said.
The first six months of service are free, but come March 6 three payment plans will be offered: a pre-paid monthly subscription for $29, a 24-hour plan for $10 and an hourly rate of $5.
Clement, however, has qualms about this model.
“Why should the people who are supposed to own THT, have to pay a high price for something they own?” he asked, adding that THT is a telecom subsidiary of Toronto Hydro Corp. which is a fully owned by the city of Toronto.
However, Gravelle maintains THT is a “stand alone department of Toronto Hydro and not a part of the city or the public-private environment.” “There’s no such thing as a free lunch, someone has to pay for it somewhere,” said Gravelle.
She said One Zone has registered some 30,000 authenticated users and hope to bump this number up to 50,000 by the time it starts charging fees. Earlier this year an Ottawa-based not-for-profit Internet development organization said that THT was overpricing WiFi access .
Bill St. Arnaud, senior director of Canarie Inc. “Toronto probably has the most expensive WiFi in the world.” This was disputed by Gravelle who said One Zone charges competitive rates.
Rogers/Fido lights TO core with true 3G
With all the buzz last night at W.T.’s Civic Bandwidth Event, and much
discussion about both Toronto Hydro, and Bell/Rogers Wi-Max, one
sea-change was missed.
Rogers/Fido has started rolling out the latest 850mhz UTMS/HSDPA
network, that is currently sweaping the international telco community.
In fact, if you could get hold of a 850mhz 3G phone you could access it
in the down town areas. When will things get more official, and you can
buy that dick-tracy video watch, who knows.
HSDPA, which has better performance than Bell’s EV-DO service, has to be
viewed as a direct competitor to the wi-max and Toronto Hydro services.
Only this time with the advantages of compact technology and true
mobility. Overseas, in more rural areas, its is even becomming accepted
as the cost-effective solution for commercial Internet access. Far
cheaper than deploying land based solutions.
While this won’t affect Wireless Toronto, which is focused on free
access at the community level, it’s certainly going to make for fun
times at the commercial end of the market.
Roach Coach in Globe and Mail
From page 3 of the Toronto section of today’s Globe and Mail:
Pack up your modem in your old kit bag
A local activist’s portable hot spot brings the Internet in a backpack
BERT ARCHER
Wireless Toronto, a volunteer group devoted to providing location-specific Internet content across the city through a series of free Wi-Fi hot spots, has been meeting every month for two years to plan new spots and strategies.
But recently they decided they would like to have more fun in 2007, so starting this month, they’re getting together for something called Hack Nights.
Their first project, which they will be field-testing today, is a spanner in the growing Wi-Fi service-industry works, an ambulatory Internet system they call “the Roach Coach.”
“It comes from the nickname for snack trucks,” group founder Gabe Sawhney says. “It came from wanting to offer Wi-Fi for gatherings at Nathan Phillips Square.”
Success!
Our Sunday hack-afternoon resulted in not only a working roach coach, but also gear for a second backpack — a wifi repeater. In the process we — hilariously, but less dramatically this time — fried another NextNet modem.
The team was me, Eli, Adam, Michael, Patrick, David and Jason. David brought a 12V motorcycle battery (off his motorcycle, which is hibernating this season), and Jason brought a little 12V rechargeable battery that he picked up at Active Surplus. Knowing that the motorcycle battery was already fully charged, we decided to hook the modem up to that one first. We tested the battery’s output voltage: 12.5V, safely in the 11-15V range that Tony recommended on our mailing list.
When we plugged it in the lights didn’t come on right away, as we would’ve expected. And there was a tiny little pop — we hoped it had come from a spark of the battery lead. We unhooked, and plugged the modem back into its wallwart… no luck, the modem was dead.
We tried diagnosing where we’d gone wrong… the only thing we came up with is that we’d reversed the polarity on the connector going into the modem.
That’s when we split up: one team would go fetch another NextNet modem, and the other team would start building backpack #2, a wifi-repeating backpack. The WRT54GL runs safely when plugged straight into our 18V cordless drill batteries.
Patrick and Michael did a beautiful job converting the Ryobi flashlight. Patrick took the gear home to test out how long the 18V drill batteries will power a WRT54G. (UPDATE: Eight full hours, with torrents running on one of the wifi clients!)
When we regained courage, we triple-checked the polarity on the connector, and plugged David’s 12V battery into the modem. (Though we used Jason’s modem this time — I was too chicken to risk blowing up mine for a third time in under a week.) It worked just fine! Then we tried plugging the modem and router into the battery at the same time — again, success!
The motorcycle battery is lead-acid, and probably not designed for deep cycle, making it a less than ideal choice: in terms of cost-efficiency, environmental-friendliness, and for the health and safety of the backpack’s wearer.
So we’ve yet to finalize a power source for the “backpack A”: the one containing both the NextNet modem and primary wifi router. We’ll either get some more Ryobi 18V drill batteries (so that we’re using the same power system for both backpacks) using a voltage regulator to knock it down to 12V, or we’ll use something like the Tekkeon myPower ALL MP3300. Anyone know of other (simple, inexpensive) options we should consider?
Once we’ve got the power stuff figured out, we’ll need to take it out onto the street, to see if we need to make any adjustments to the modem’s antenna, or add an external one…
Fun wifi event January 23rd, you’re all invited
Talk/Drinks/Beats at Lot 16 (1136 Queen St West)
Tuesday Jan 23, 2007 7-11PM
No cover, cash bar, free nibbles
7:00 PM – Welcome & Social
8:00 PM – Talks & Discussion
9:30 PM – DJ & Drinks
Wireless Toronto is hosting an open discussion/meet & greet with some
of Canada’s best known community wifi innovators and researchers at the
Lot 16 bar.
Featuring brief presentations by Michael Lenczner of Ile Sans Fil and Graham Longford from the Community Wireless Infrastructure Research Project.
If you’re curious about wifi, social media, alternative communications,
telecom policy… come join us on Jan 23rd for a fun night.
Sign up on Upcoming, Locate the venue on Google Maps
Two new hotspots!
We’re happy to announce two new Wireless Toronto hotspots!
“Think of Lot 16 as the anti-Drake. Lifting its name from NYC’s Lot 61, the minimally appointed, very brown space was once the Elvis Restaurant, the greasiest of spoons. Though the current clientele has moved slightly upmarket – slightly – the no-frills Parkdale attitude remains.” — Now Magazine
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Gusto Cafe is in Islington Village — a cute neighbourhood which I’d never been to until today. It seems like a great spot, offering coffee, snacks and sandwiches, and very friendly. It’s a short walk from the Islington subway… drop in if you’re in the area!
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A map of all Wireless Toronto hotspots is available here: http://auth.wirelesstoronto.ca/hotspots_map.php
Toronto Reference Library gets free wifi
It’s not one of our hotspots, but it’s great to hear that the Toronto Public Library is finally getting into wifi. Found via Shawn at Spacing wire (with a bonus nod to Wireless Toronto).
…laptops get lonely when they can’t connect to anything, and sometimes books just aren’t enough.
There are little signs around the library directing people to the 1st and 2nd floor to connect, but I’m on the 4th floor now and my Powerbook is picking up a usable signal.
…Best part of the TRL wifi is all you do is hook up, check a box that says you agree to terms and conditions, and that’s it, you’re on.
January hacknight: Wifi Roach Coach
Our first hacknight (last night) was… a blast. Due to confusion we had to change the venue at the last minute to — my home office. There have never been so many people (me, Edward, Patrick, Ana-Maria, Dave, Liam, Michael and Susan) in the room at once.
We’re building a wifi backpack, which we’ve affectionately called the WiFi Roach Coach (long story). It’ll be a battery-powered WRT54GL and Rogers/Bell/Inukshuk pre-WiMax modem providing connectivity. (It’s a NextNet Expedience RSU-2510-AV.) This’ll allow us to set up an instant Wireless Toronto hotspot anyplace where we can get a (pre-)WiMax signal. It’ll be especially useful to provide wifi coverage at events.
We started off well: we got a modem, router, two 18V Ryobi (cordless drill) batteries, a battery charger, and a 18V battery flashlight — from which we’d remove the light and plug into the two boxes. Patrick bought a nice blue backpack.
While the WRT54GL comes with a 12VDC, 1A power supply, I’d read that it can run on a wide range of voltages. Patrick unscrewed the flashlight, Dave hooked up the leads, Michael stripped the power supply cable, and we plugged it all in: success. The lights on the router came on and looked normal. w00t.
Next, we tried the modem. Same setup, different power cable. The modem has a 13VDC, 1.3A power supply — pretty close. In our giddiness and haste, we made the poor assumption that the modem would be similarly forgiving about the higher voltage.
We plugged it in, Dave hit the switch on the flashlight, and nothing happened. We sat. About 5 seconds later, there were a series of really loud pops — at least three, maybe as many at seven. A horrible smell filled the room, while a huge plume of smoke rose to the ceiling.
Oops.
So, we passed around another round of beers, and lamented. Ana-Maria — the only engineer among us — drew what we *should* have done… figured out the impedance of the router and modem, and added in the appropriate resistors to bring the voltage down to 13V. (Or this is what I think she said, anyway.)
We then (seven of us!) trekked back to the store where I bought the modem, hoping for a quick and painless exchange. Sadly, they were closed — we’ll have to try again another time. We bought potato chips (organic!) and walked back. We ate chips, made fun of ourselves, and cleaned up. Venceremos!
Thanks to Edward, Patrick and me for the beer, with special thanks to Patrick for carrying it all. (And sorry I forgot to tell you that the alleyway jogs at Markham.)
More photos from Dave are, hopefully, forthcoming.
Future hacknights will be held at InterAccess… sorry for the confusion this time. The next one will be sometime next month, though there may be a mini-hacknight soon, to finish the roach coach. Details on the discuss list.
Join us for a wifi hardware hack-night, Tuesday Jan 9
*UPDATE – VENUE CHANGE*
If you’re interested in attending email for details: gabe-at-pwd-dot-ca
For Wireless Toronto’s first hacknight, we attempt to build the wifi roach coach, a backpack housing a wifi router, wimax modem for uplink, and powered using cordless drill batteries. For bonus points, we can build additional backpacks with wifi repeaters, for additional coverage using the same wimax uplink.
Anyone who’d like to help build, or watch, or just chat, is welcome to come — tech sk1llz not necessary. This won’t be much like our past meetings; no agenda, etc.
The hope is to have hacknights like this every month or so, with a different project each time.
*UPDATE – VENUE CHANGE*
If you’re interested in attending email for details: gabe-at-pwd-dot-ca
Tuesday, Jan 9 7-10pm at the Interaccess space, more details over on Upcoming. Hope to see you there.