Montreal Goes Wireless
Montreal, the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec, is going wireless. Two Montreal companies plan to blanket the city with wireless Internet service by 2009, making a big chunk of the island one huge wireless hotspot, reports the Montreal Gazette.
Internet service provider Radioactif and network installer Nomade Telecom will launch the first WiFi network and possibly WiMax in September on the Mount-Royal Plate. By 2009, they expect to cover nearly 90% of Montreal residents, over an area of 300 square kilometres.
Wifi access points will apparently be inter-connected with WiMax. The goal is to offer broadband wireless and Mobile IP Telephony.
Videotron, Quebec’s largest cable Internet provider, charges the same price for the first three months, then increases the rate to $49. Bell Sympatico, which offers Internet through phone lines, charges $20 a month for six months, then $45.
“The market is controlled by a few big players,” said Radioactif president Daniel Robichaud. “Our goal is to offer our own service at competitive rates.”
Wi-Fi networks in London have increased by 160 per cent from 2006, out pacing the rate of increase in other financial centres such as New York (49 per cent) and Paris (44 per cent), according to a survey commissioned by RSA. The surge put London (7,130) ahead of New York (6,371) and Paris (825), in the number of access points.
Original Source: dailywireless.org
