Toronto Hydro today announced that they’re deploying a wifi network. Here’s a summary of the details they’ve released:
– it will launch in 5 stages:
— phase 1: front to queen, church to spadina (end of June)
— phase 2: queen to college, church to spadina (before the end of September)
— phase 3: college to bloor, spadina to yonge
— phase 4: spadina to bathurst, front to queen (by the end of the year)
— phase 5: front to queen, church to parliament (by the end of the year)
— (a map is available on their site)
– it will offer 100% coverage in these zones
– it will be free for the first 6 months (meaning June – December, or six months from launch in each zone?)
– after that the rates will be “competitive” with Bell, Rogers and Telus, with four rate plans to choose from (competitive with their cell-based wireless Internet service rates, or their wired broadband Internet service rates?)
– the access points will be installed on lampposts
– it will offer “seamless” service, so that users don’t need to reassociate with networks as they move around
– Toronto Hydro is owned by the City of Toronto
– it’s being funded entirely by Toronto Hydro
– in the future, it will extend outside the downtown core — their goal is to “blanket” the entire city of Toronto with wifi
– it will be the largest wifi zone in Canada

link to the original article

T.O. to become wireless hotspot
Toronto Star
Mar. 6, 2006.
TYLER HAMILTON

Toronto Hydro Corp. will announce Tuesday that it plans to turn Canada’s largest city into one giant wireless hotspot, directly challenging the country’s major mobile phone carriers for a chunk of the $8 billion a year wireless market.

With the deployment, which sources say could be available in the downtown core as early as this fall, Toronto joins a growing list of North American cities, including Philadelphia, New Orleans and San Francisco, that have announced plans to bring low-cost, broadband wireless access to their citizens and businesses.

This announcement came as a surprise today. My first reaction was, “It’s about time!” While cities like Seattle, NYC, and Montreal have used WiFi to provide no-cost public internet access for many years now, Toronto has lagged. Sure, our own grassroots-level efforts have paid off with projects like the St. Lawrence Market, demonstrating what is possible at the local, community-level. However, a large-scale project that targets the entire city is far beyond the resources of an all-volunteer community group such as ours, so I’m excited to see more details about this Toronto Hydro initiative.

So far, this announcement seems positive. Anything that encourages discussion around the need for alternative, affordable broadband access is good. Obviously, this is a complex topic that has already re-ignited myriad debates over the pros and cons of existing telecom and cable structures, broadband-as-utilities, and “the digital divide”.

A lot of people (both in Toronto and elsewhere) will be waiting with bated breath for the full announcement tomorrow.

Some things that I (and many others at WT) will be looking and hoping for in tomorrow’s announcement from Toronto Hydro are:

• a clear strategy for public consultation, and opportunity for
  community stakeholders to participate, from the earliest planning phases onward
• provision for free wireless internet access in public spaces such as parks, community centres, and public squares
• specific and meaningful initiatives that address accessibility, especially in terms of underserved communities and small businesses.

For more on this topic, see today’s Spacing Wire

Wireless Toronto is a community wireless network for Toronto, inspired by the great work that Ile Sans Fil (http://ilesansfil.org) has done in Montreal. (87 hotspots and counting!)

It wasn’t ’til last year that was there a widespread launch of public wifi in Toronto, and it was by companies offering it for premium rates in chain coffee shops.

We feel that the full potential of wifi is realized through community-focused, no-cost access. Cafes, restaurants, libraries and parks around the world offer free wifi, as part of their mandate, or as a value-added service.

Our goal is to assist the availability of no-cost wifi in Toronto in public and publicly-accessible places, while developing the community-enhancing applications that are ultimately the most unique and valuable uses for these networks.

Wireless Toronto now has launched thirteen hotspots, from Oakville to Scarbourough, Woodbridge to St. Lawrence Market. Each one has its own community portal page, facilitating communication between hotspot users, and promoting the culture and community of its immediate neighbourhood.

We’re all volunteers, but have made an important mark on the availability of wifi in Toronto (and we’ll soon be launching the city’s first public wifi node in a park!). We’ve got lots more to do, and if you’re interested, join us! Help us find place that could benefit from wifi, help build the technical infrastructure that powers the network, and help us develop the community applications and content that make this technology really exciting.