Toronto latest city to get WiFied
The Toronto Star is reporting that the biggest city in Canada (that would be Toronto) is about to get blanketed in WiFi goodness, joining such US cities as Philadelphia and San Francisco with similarly ambitious municipal broadband initiatives. Mayor David Miller is expected to announce the project in conjunction with Toronto Hydro, who had previously bought 18,000 street lamps around the city for $60 million, and which will be used partly to help the water utility fulfill a mandate requiring it to deploy remotely-readable smart meters. No details are available yet regarding proposed pricing structures or benefits to the city such as reduced-cost access for low-income households, but the project already has some detractors who question the appropriateness of government involvement in citywide mesh networks. Also keeping a close eye on developments are major Canadian telecom players such as Rogers, Bell, and Tellus, whose own wired and wireless broadband services could be threatened by Toronto Hydro's network.
[Thanks, Ted]
