A View on View :: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

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Mark Evans

the blog - examines the world of telecom and technology from a distinctly Canadian perspective.

the person - lives in Toronto, CA with his wife and three children, and works as director of community with PlanetEye Inc.

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Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Mark Evans on Tue 07 Mar 2006 05:07 PM EST | Permanent Link

When asked whether Toronto Hydro's plans to launch a Wi-Fi network in Toronto will lead to direct competition with cellular and broadband rivals, Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO Dave Dobbin said - with a big smile on his face - "Isn't it great?". Well, you know what? I think he's right. I think the idea of an alternative broadband service provider is a great idea if it means breaking up the un-competitive landscape that currently exists. In most major markets, consumers only have two choice for broadband service - and the war for their attention isn't being fought on price. In fact, prices have been steadily climbing. Maybe Toronto Hydro will become what Inukshuk was supposed to be - at least in Toronto - before Inukshuk was absorbed last year by Rogers and Bell. Inukshuk, for the uninitiated, was going to launch a broadband service across the country using Wi-Max. Unfortunately, it disappeared just as it seemed things were going to get interesting. Toronto Hydro, one the other hand, has staying power. Let's hope it doesn't lose its rebellious streak.

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Comments

Re: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Michael Bodalski on Tue 07 Mar 2006 07:18 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

Hey Mark, I was at the AIMS event this morning and it looks like your opinion on this topic has done a 360 over the course of a few hours. What got you drinking the kool-aid?

At first I thought it was private ownership, but it looks like the city will be the owner of the network. Am I missing something, or did I misunderstand you ~~rant~~ comments, this morning.

BTW - Great job this morning, I find my self increasingly interested in how the "news industry" is going to adapt to the changes. My wife and I have a good friend in the AP and it was interesting to hear your thoughts compared to her own.

Re: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Winston on Tue 07 Mar 2006 10:04 PM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

You wrote"

In most major markets, consumers only have two choice for broadband service - and the war for their attention isn't being fought on price

I don't know about anywhere else, but in Toronto there are fifty ISP's offering residential DSL and most are significantly cheaper than Bell or Rogers. I'm paying $29.95 a month for 3.5 Mbps down and 800 Kbps up (and with much better service than Bell). I'd be interested in the portability of a wireless service, but I have a hard time believing that it will win on price, compared to the low-cost options already available.

Re: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Anonymous on Wed 08 Mar 2006 12:40 AM EST | Permanent Link

@Winston,

You're still getting your DSL service via Bell, even if you're using a third-party ISP, as those ISPs need to use Bell's lines.

Re: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Kevin on Wed 08 Mar 2006 09:04 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

The hard work begins for THT now.

Do these guys know how to market to residential customers and serve fickle and demanding people?
My bet is on Bell, Telus and Rogers over time as they'll eventually be able to rollout a broader and maybe inferior service that will keep customers because it'll be part of a larger bundle.

It's still good to see another player try to wedge its way into a telecom market that seems like its been sewn up by the big three for years.

Re: Quote of the Day from Toronto Hydro Telecom CEO

by Stuart MacDonald on Wed 08 Mar 2006 10:01 AM EST | Profile | Permanent Link

Anything that gets us closer to my Nirvana of affordale, anywhere, anytime, fat-pipe webtone makes me a happy guy. Should the Government be doing this? Maybe not. Maybe so. Regardless, it needs doing.

- Stuart

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\n"; return $new_ad_params; } } /** BEGIN Backwards Compatibility Routines */ if (! function_exists('array_combine')) { function array_combine($keys, $values) { foreach($keys as $key) $out[$key] = array_shift($values); return $out; } } if (!function_exists('fputcsv')) { function fputcsv($filePointer, $dataArray, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { // Write a line to a file // $filePointer = the file resource to write to // $dataArray = the data to write out // $delimeter = the field separator // Build the string $string = ""; // No leading delimiter $writeDelimiter = FALSE; foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) { // Replaces a double quote with two double quotes $dataElement=str_replace("\"", "\"\"", $dataElement); // Adds a delimiter before each field (except the first) if($writeDelimiter) $string .= $delimiter; // Encloses each field with $enclosure and adds it to the string $string .= $enclosure . $dataElement . $enclosure; // Delimiters are used every time except the first. $writeDelimiter = TRUE; } // end foreach($dataArray as $dataElement) // Append new line $string .= "\n"; // Write the string to the file return fwrite($filePointer,$string); } } if (!function_exists('fgetcsv')) { #TODO - Remove or ??? #Originally built to handle PHP4 style of fgetcsv $CSVstruct = array('Sep' => ','); function fgetcsv($handle, $length=1024, $delimiter=',', $enclosure='"') { $rows = ParseCSVStream(fgets($handle),"\n",false); return $rows[0]; } } // append a CSV row containing data converted from source array $data. Actual conversion is done by ExCSVRowWalker() function AppendCSVRow($data) { global $CSVstruct; array_walk($data,'ExCSVRowWalker'.($CSVstruct['OutEOL']=="\n"?'N':'')); $CSVstruct['File'] .= implode($CSVstruct['Sep'],$data).$CSVstruct['OutEOL']; } // returns an array of rows (each row being an array of columns) with parsed data. Returns false when conversion fails. Auto-detects Win/Mac/*nix newline characters, which are converted all to the sequence specified (defaults to $CSVstruct['OutEOL']) for your convenience. function ParseCSVStream($data, $newline="\n", $associative=true) { global $CSVstruct; $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\r","\n",str_replace("\r\n","\n",$data)); if ($newline!="\n") $CSVstruct['File'] = str_replace("\n",$newline,$CSVstruct['File']); $CSVstruct['OutEOL'] = $newline; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = 0; $CSVstruct['Error'] = false; $CSVstruct['EOF'] = false; $res = array(); if ($associative) { $titles = ParseCSVRow(); while (($row = ParseCSVRow())!==false) { $newa = array(); //possible optimization: might use array_combine() - requires PHP 5 for ($col = 0; $col0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',str_replace($CSVstruct['OutEOL'],"\n",$item)).'"'; } function ExCSVRowWalkerN(&$item) { if (!is_numeric($item)&&(strlen($item)>0)) $item = '"'.str_replace('"','""',$item).'"'; } // read next line from buffer. function RowInput() { global $CSVstruct; if ($CSVstruct['EOF']) { return ""; } else { $pos = strpos($CSVstruct['File'], $CSVstruct['OutEOL'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); if ($pos===false) { $CSVstruct['EOF'] = true; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$CSVstruct['Seek']); } else { $pos1 = $CSVstruct['Seek']; $CSVstruct['Seek'] = $pos+1; return substr($CSVstruct['File'],$pos1,$pos-$pos1); }; }; } /** Initialize ad_network variable */ $ad_logic = new ad_logic($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); $ad_network = $ad_logic->ad_network($PATH_TO_AD_FILE); ?>