Technicalities slow Toronto Hydro Telecom’s Wi-Fi deployment

Not enough electricity. Concerns from the police and health agencies. And a need to address all of these things. No wonder Toronto Hydro Telecom Inc.’s (THT) Wi-Fi "blanket" for downtown Hogtown is behind schedule. In a July press conference, THT representatives explained how various hurdles have slowed the wireless data network rollout. Phase I, covering the financial district, was supposed to be up and running in June. Now THT says it will be launched September 7. The press conference was meant to focus on technical details, but journalists largely wanted to know why the plan is off its time-budget. In fact, technical aspects have a lot to do with THT’s tardiness. For instance, consider the carrier’s plan to install Wi-Fi access points on street light poles. That only works if the poles are suitable. Sometimes they aren’t. "A very low percentage of them had 24-7 power," explained Sharyn Gravelle, THT’s VP of wireless. No power means no voltage for the access points. The company had to go about amending poles with photocell switches so the poles would feed power to the access points all the time, not just after dusk. That delayed things. Another delay had to do with various authorities. THT had to sit down with Toronto Public Health officials and convince them the Wi-Fi network wouldn’t have any unintended health effects on the city’s residents. Health Canada sets a threshold for electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation that wireless equipment can emit. THT’s access points would surely add to EMF radiation levels, but the company’s gear is considered "low risk," Gravelle said. THT also decided to work with Toronto’s police to ensure users of the Wi-Fi system wouldn’t get away with illegal practices, such as viewing and distributing child pornography online. To stem that behaviour, the service provider instituted a login authentication system that incorporates the user’s cell phone number. After entering a cell phone number on Toronto Hydro’s web site (www.thetelecom.ca/one-zone.html), users receive a text message with a username and password for that particular Internet session. This authentication system might help the carrier keep track of users even during the free trial period, which is supposed to span the first six months of service. But the login scheme isn’t perfect. It excludes people who don’t have cell phones, for instance. Gravelle said this text message plan was the best compromise between simplicity and security. THT will also review credit card authentication as a potential end-user identifier during the free trial period, and the company plans to use credit card authentication once it starts charging for service. The authentication system’s bones are built into the back-end infrastructure, which comes from German communication-equipment powerhouse Siemens AG and Ottawa’s BelAir Networks Inc. Ron Mansi, head of business development at Siemens Canada Ltd., said the equipment includes a wireless integration platform (WIP) and a wireless access gateway (WAG) providing accounting functions so users can use credit cards to pay for service when THT starts charging. THT’s representatives said the firm isn’t ready to discuss access prices, but in the past the company has said the amount it charges will be competitive with other Wi-Fi services and high-speed mobile data services from cell phone carriers (RoW, June 15/06). Phil Vlach, THT’s technical lead, explained that the network employs three protocols: 802.11g and 802.11b for the user-to-network connection, and 802.11a for the access point-to-access point connection. With three protocols, the company can ensure that backhaul traffic doesn’t diminish download speeds for users. And as THT is using a mesh architecture to connect all of the access points (225 of them over 235 city blocks when all is said and done), the company doesn’t have to homerun every node, so fewer wires are required and THT doesn’t have to spend as much on network infrastructure as it might otherwise face. Company representatives picked voice and video as potential future services on the network: a Wi-Fi phone call was demonstrated during the press conference. Voice support would put THT in competition with wide-area wireless network operators such as Bell Mobility and Rogers Wireless, but it’s too soon to say whether THT will seriously affect those service providers. After all, One Zone is confined to a municipality – users can only roam so far and expect to get connected. Is Wi-Fi a genuine cell phone alternative? The answer isn’t clear – at least, not yet. Only time will tell just how well this municipal infrastructure works, whether users are interested, and whether it eats into not only wireless service providers’ revenues, but also landline connections.

Technicalities slow Toronto Hydro Telecom’s Wi-Fi deployment

News | July 27, 2006

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