For sale: Toronto Hydro Telecom, IT World Canada.
I doubt the carriers will be interested in buying OneZone — it’s a lot of expensive infrastructure that’s not actually worth much strategically.
I wonder if this’ll be the first “muni” network that gets sold off? (It wasn’t a real muni network in the first place, and this ensures that no one will ever again make that mistake!)
The article below made me think it’s time to get a few new hotspots on the Wireless Toronto map.
Not only have a few WT spots have gone out of business/shutdown, but I’ve seen tons of new spaces that seem perfect for provisioning free wi-fi! With spring not so far away, it seems that a venue sprint or something of the like would be in order… any ideas or takers?
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Montrealers claim to lead Canada in free Wi-Fi
By: Greg Meckbach
ComputerWorld Canada (11 Jan 2008)
Montrealers could soon boast their city has the largest number of free Wi-Fi hot spots, says an administrator of Ile Sans Fils (ISF) , a group of volunteers that helps business owners install wireless Internet access for their customers in Montreal.
Richard Lussier, an administrator with ISF, said he group has installed about 155 free hot spots, serving about 60,000 users.
….
In Canada, Toronto has the Wireless Toronto Centre for Social Innovation, which includes 38 businesses operating hot spots. Users who want to pay for Wi-Fi connectivity can hook up to One Zone, operated by Toronto Hydro Telecom in the downtown area.
It is starting look a lot like . . . Winter – Christmas – Hanukkah – Kwanza – Eid ul-Adha or may be just the WIRELESS TORONTO & INDIAN ELECTRONICA’S HOLIDAY PARTY!
A special audio-visual interactive instalment of Dishoom, hosted by Wireless Toronto and Indian Electronica!
Featuring: Qasim Virjee, Abdul Smooth, Anuj Rastogi, Patrick Dinnen + Guests
Thursday December 13, 2007 @ Lot 16
1136 Queen Street West (at Lisgar St) in Toronto Canada
9PM – 2AM/close (no cover, no attitude, no samosas)
http://www.indianelectronica.com/dishoom
HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
Our newest hotspot is in a new kind of venue for us: a nail lounge. Victoria Thorpe, the owner of Buff Nail Lounge, says that many of her customers who come in during the day have asked if they have wifi available, so that they can check email and keep in touch with the office…
Downtown omnivores may be happy to know that the newest Wireless Toronto hotspot is at St. Louis Bar & Grill, in the Atrium on Bay (and with an entrance on Edward Street, right across from World’s Biggest Bookstore). It opened just this summer, and looks great!
A big launch for Wireless Toronto today: it’s the official launch at the York Quay Centre at Harbourfront Centre. With festivals every weekend in the summer, and year-round galleries and events, it’s a great new addition to the Wireless Toronto network…
Good news east-enders, The Carrot Common has joined our community wireless network. Coverage favours the central courtyard with the signal reaching into The Big Carrot’s seating area and the organic juice bar that faces Danforth. Drop by next time you cross The Don.
More hotspots: http://auth.wirelesstoronto.ca/hotspots_map.php
Anthony totally-on-the-mark:
“They are the monorails of this decade: the wrong technology, totally overpromised and completely undelivered,” said Anthony Townsend, research director at the Institute for the Future, a think tank.
From “Cities Struggle With Wireless Internet” from the Houston Chronicle. The article describes the hassles and disappointments experienced by users, citizens, politicians and city staff in relation to muniwireless projects in various cities in the US.
[From http://spacing.ca/wire/?p=1821 ]
When: Tuesday, May 15th, starting at 7pm
Where: Fermenting Cellar, Distillery District
Who: DJ Chris Thinn
How Much: $10 gets you into the building, plus food
Cash Bar
Dear Torontonian,
The Festival of Architecture and Design will take place again in May, and the folks at ERA Architects, Spacing Magazine and [murmur] are throwing another Toronto the Good party to celebrate your faithful city. This year the Toronto Society of Architects are also co-hosting, and they will be announcing the winner of their ‚ÄúDesign Matters‚Äù competition, which will be on display during the party. They also want to introduce all of you to Wireless Toronto, an all-volunteer community group celebrating their 2nd anniversary providing free community wireless hotspots in caf?©s, bars, and outdoor places like Dufferin Grove Park and Dundas Square. Come by anytime for some food, drink, interactive and wireless games, and a room full of nice people who care about me.
Love,
Toronto
As of this Tuesday (April 24th), Toronto Hydro Telecom’s OneZone network started charging for access. Over the course of their 7.5-month free trial, they made some improvements to the network, hardware and software. An independent company rated theirs the fastest “municipal” wifi network around. Still, I often had trouble obtaining an IP address, getting to the login screen, and using any AJAX-based sites. Which is too bad, ’cause the two sites I normally want access to while I’m downtown are GMail and Google Maps — both of which were normally very sluggish on OneZone.
I wish them luck with their monetization. I’m unlikely to use the network again — I don’t live in the “zone”, and though my office is within it, there’s no signal in sight. (I guess the poles on Spadina weren’t part of the package they bought from the city, under questionable circumstances.)
If they’re short on cash, here’s a suggestion: pre-paid service with per-minute billing. I’ll happily today pay you $20 on my credit card, if I know that I’ll be able to (reliably) use the service anytime I’m downtown, at 5 (or maybe even 10) cents per minute.
Not many papers or blogs seem to have covered this yet; here are the ones I could find: