Image: Amanda Duff News@UofT -- Forum Find this story on the web at: http://www.news.utoronto.ca/bin6/thoughts/061107-2696.asp WIFI fever Free wireless Internet service sweeps Toronto and U of T Nov 7/06 by Graham Longford and Rhonda McEwen Early last September, Toronto Hydro Telecom (THT) launched a free wireless Internet service (commonly referred to as “WiFi”) in the city’s financial core, the first phase of a plan to blanket the downtown and, eventually, the entire city with ubiquitous wireless connectivity. In doing so, Toronto joined a growing list of cities in North America gripped by WiFi fever, as municipalities compete to attract and retain business investment, skilled workers, and tourists. Toronto Hydro Telecom’s OneZone service will be available on U of T’s St. George campus later this month. While students, faculty and staff have enjoyed access to a campus wireless network in U of T buildings for several years now, OneZone will offer wireless Internet service outdoors as well, creating a zone of perpetual wireless connectivity enveloping the campus. What is driving the rapid deployment of these WiFi networks? What are the benefits? How are they changing the way we communicate, work and learn at U of T? And what, if any, are the downsides? Municipal WiFi – “the Electricity of the 21st Century”? Access to high-speed communication networks is becoming essential to participating in today’s information economy and society. Some have dubbed broadband wireless networks “the electricity of the 21st century,” arguing they will soon be as important to the new century as electrical power grids, road and rail transportation networks and other utilities were to the previous one. If this is the case, then Toronto has some work to do to ensure that its citizens have access to the 21st-century infrastructure they need to thrive and prosper. Today, at a typical cost of $500 annually, only 60 per cent of Toronto households subscribe to high-speed Internet service. Fully 25 per cent of Toronto households have no Internet access at all. This “digital divide” excludes hundreds of thousands of Torontonians from enjoying the benefits of broadband connectivity. In addition to providing ubiquitous mobile connectivity to laptop-toting professionals, wireless fidelity or WiFi technology has recently been touted as a solution to the difficulties of getting affordable broadband to every home, also called “the last mile.” The economics of laying expensive fibre dissuades telecom firms from serving all areas with quality broadband access. WiFi and other wireless technologies may provide a relatively inexpensive solution to the problem. WiFi enables the creation of wireless local area networks, commonly referred to as “hotspots,” that broadcast Internet signals using the same unlicensed radio spectrum as common household devices like TV remotes. Interconnected and overlapping “mesh” networks of hotspots can also be created to form a wireless “cloud” covering an entire urban area, practically eliminating the problem of the last mile. Torontonians stand to benefit considerably from the development of a municipal wireless network. A free or more affordable service will place broadband access within reach of more low