Tech Shout!

Toronto will be the next city to get Wi-Fied soon. Mayor David Miller is expected to announce the project in conjunction with Toronto Hydro to provide wireless Internet access across the city. Sources told the Toronto Star newspaper that it everything works out according to the anticipated plan then the service in the downtown region could be available as early as the fall of this year.

New Orleans, Chicago and San Francisco are all considering plans to similarly cover their towns with wireless Internet, with a present project in Philadelphia being the most advanced one. The project is seen as a way to both enhance tourism and attract businesses to those cities.

In addition, the networks also give municipalities a way of generating additional income, as well as to help fill the so-called “digital divide,” or the lack of Internet access among lower income residents. The moves have infuriated telecommunications companies, however, who see it as government encroachment on their businesses.

Municipal Wi-Fi is likely to be offered at a discount when compared to commercial services, which those companies see as a threat to their bottom line. Furthermore, some have accused cities of abusing their monopoly over taxpayer dollars.

Toronto Hydro, Canada’s largest electrical supplier, owns the traffic light system in the city. The company will install transmitters about every fourth or fifth light to create a “mesh network.”

While at first the network was planned to help read electric smart meters, the utility turned to offering its services to the general public to supplement its cost, the Star reported Monday.

It is not immediately clear if the utility would resell bandwidth on its network to third-party providers, as EarthLink is doing in Philadelphia.