[GTALUG] Fwd: HISTORIC opportunity for cheaper Internet in Toronto

[Dave Collier-Brown]

On 2021-01-29 8:05 a.m., Alvin Starr via talk wrote:
> On 1/28/21 7:18 PM, James Knott via talk wrote:
>> On 2021-01-28 5:45 p.m., David Collier-Brown via talk wrote:
>>> A proposal for a community broadband, in Toronto! 
>>
>> Several years ago, Toronto Hydro had the same idea.  I  believe they 
>> sold their fibre to Cogeco.  Back when I was with Unitel, working 
>> with Rogers, we'd use Hydro fibre to reach customers in the downtown 
>> core.
>>
> Not sure of steps in between but Cogeco ended up with Toronto Hydro 
> Telecom and bundled it with Peer1 which they recently sold to 
> https://www.digitalcolony.com/ <https://www.digitalcolony.com/> and 
> its now called Aptum.
> https://aptum.com/newsroom/cogeco-peer-1-acquistion-by-digital-colony-closes/ 
> <https://aptum.com/newsroom/cogeco-peer-1-acquistion-by-digital-colony-closes/>
>
> So a large chunk of Ontario's telecom infrastructure is in the hands 
> of  a bunch of fund managers.
> I have a feeling that will not end well for Ontario users of telecom 
> services.
>

Conversely, the US FCC (just) reached out to Vint Cerf, Dave Taht and 
others to advise on the $3.2 billion "Emergency Broadband Benefit 
Program", instead of watching their infrastructure just circle the drain 
(;-))

--dave


-- 
David Collier-Brown,         | Always do right. This will gratify
System Programmer and Author | some people and astonish the rest
dave.collier-brown at indexexchange.com |              -- Mark Twain