Fwd: Toronto City committee calls for city fiber network

[Gene Hastings <hastings@info-ren.org>]

>Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 09:25:14 -0400 (EDT)
>From: CAnet-3-NEWS@canarie.ca
>Subject: Toronto City committee calls for city fiber network
>
>For more information on this item please visit the CANARIE CA*net 3 Optical
>Internet program web site at http://www.canet3.net
>-------------------------------------------
>
>>From the Toronto Star May 5th
>
>Panel calls for network to wire Toronto
>Plan would ensure Net access for all
>
>
>By John Spears
>Toronto Star Business Reporter
>
>Hogtown should become fibre town by installing a city-owned fibre-optic
>cable network, says a committee of Toronto council.
>
>It will ask city council to consider installing a fibre-optic network
>through the city's subway tunnels, sewers and Hydro rights of way to reach
>all areas of Toronto.
>
>Councillor John Adams, who chairs the city's telecommunications steering
>committee, said providing public Internet access will be as important a task
>in years to come as providing public roads were in previous generations.
>
>``The private sector carriers will do a good job of wiring the big shiny
>buildings,'' Adams (Midtown) said in an interview.
>
>But schools, hospitals, libraries and small businesses also need access to
>the next generation Internet, which will be vastly more powerful than the
>current version, Adams said.
>
>He fears they may be bypassed by private sector networks racing to serve big
>businesses clustered in downtown cores or commercial centres.
>
>``There is a really important role for government in making sure that kids
>at Jane and Finch, or Regent Park, or St. James Town have ready access to
>all of the Internet so they can be knowledge workers and producers in the
>next generation,'' said Adams.
>
>Another benefit? Broad access to high-speed Internet would allow more people
>to telecommute and cut traffic congestion.
>
>The city's advantage in building a network is its real estate. It owns
>conduits penetrating every neighbourhood in the city in the form of subway
>tunnels, Hydro rights of way and even sewers.
>
>The city would install high-capacity fibre-optic cable on its properties and
>lease it on a cost-recovery basis.
>
>Several cities around the world, including Stockholm and Palo Alto, Calif.,
>are building municipal fibre networks, Adams said. And a group of 26
>government and academic institutions are building their own network in
>Ottawa.
>
>
>
>
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>-------------------------------------
>Bill St. Arnaud
>Senior Director Network Projects
>CANARIE
>bill.st.arnaud@canarie.ca
>+1 613 785-0426