Yeah, I just heard on the radio that the city I live in (Kitchener, ON) and the its neighbour city (Waterloo, ON) have deals being worked out with companies about city-wide WiFi. I really thought this would be the last place this occurs in...
I don't think so. Google doesn't come as close as my town. Maybe one of the companies in Waterloo, they like to invent stuff, like a recent "in-car voice E-mail check"...
You'll be dealing with Fibretech - basically the hydro/electrical company. I've dealt with them in the past, and trust me, you do NOT want to deal with these people. Complete idiots. They do not have a good reputation in the field. Bandwidth sucks - poor quality, prices are absolutely obscene, and service, well, it's worse than dealing with the government if that's possible. Like Bell canada used to be years ago. It's also relatively pointless. The KW area doesn't really have any connectivity problems. You can get phone or cable at 5mbs just about anywhere. Why would I switch to wireless and get likely slower speeds and less reliability - and no service? So I can drive around and get wireless when I'm stopped at traffic lights? Nyuh-huh.
Oh, BTW, I was one of the early adopters of wifi locally back before we had DSL/cable. First one in this area to sign up actually (rural area near KW). And it's not all it's cracked up to be. Works fine when it works - but while I could get a signal, it degraded in the summer when trees were in the way - and most of my neighbours couldn't get it at all.
you're talking a few years ago. we're in 2006 now. I don't think the city is dealing with crappy companies. Looks like a big investment. Sympatico (aka Bell Canada), ive had it for over a year, and they have the best support and service, and best bandwidth. you're probably thinking of Rogers Cable Internet. I had them and they went down about 45% of the day. We called their support, they said we won't do anything about it. If you want something better, upgrade. So, I am sorry to prove you wrong