UD2
Active Member
Putting cell signal transmitters in subway tunnels must be very expensive.
The first question one should ask the commissioners is - did they ride the TTC consistently, and did they do so today? Competence and knowledge of the system starts at the top. Don't ride it? Shouldn't make decisions about it.
AoD
Putting cell signal transmitters in subway tunnels must be very expensive.
Not really. The TTC thought it would be a good idea to make this a revenue source and the highest bidder won. (forbid creating a service which people enjoy)
The Telco's have all decided they would not pay the fees the winner wants from them.
Now if the TTC forced the Telco's to create a cooperative which would provide services and give them space in the tunnel for a nominal fee ($1 a year) or giving free wifi I'm sure we would have had service already
Thanks for explaining so concisely. I knew that the Telco's weren't playing ball, but I 'didn't know the reason why. They balked at paying a third party fees for it. The third party was charging high fees because the TTC wanted revenue for allowing them to provide a service that transit users wanted.
Given they recently started the rollout of the WiFi from 2 stations to 15 stations, I'd assume that they have gotten round that 2-year requirement somehow, and now they contract is in effect for the full 20 years into the 2030s. If they haven't gotten around it, then I wouldn't think they'd have just added 13 stations!But the good news is that the contract is set to expire shortly. Basically they had to reach an agreement with Bell and Rogers (or a combination of other cell providers) within 2 years. I'm not sure when it started but it should be ending shortly.
Given they recently started the rollout of the WiFi from 2 stations to 15 stations, I'd assume that they have gotten round that 2-year requirement somehow, and now they contract is in effect for the full 20 years into the 2030s. If they haven't gotten around it, then I wouldn't think they'd have just added 13 stations!
I'd think that they expect that once they have enough infrastructure in place, and it's clear they got the full 20-year period, that one of the cell providers would fold. I'd think someone like Wind or another new startup, would find it a useful marketing tool.I find it hard to believe they expect $1.75M/year+ from that wifi advertisement to cover the TTCs rent ($25M for 20 years, is that all up-front? + $250k/year) and their own expenses.
Even if they got around the 60% restriction, they must have gotten someone to sign up to make a business case for the rollout.
I'd think that they expect that once they have enough infrastructure in place, and it's clear they got the full 20-year period, that one of the cell providers would fold. I'd think someone like Wind or another new startup, would find it a useful marketing tool.
Do we know what's going happen to the bike racks on the nova artics? Have they devised a fix to the driver visibility issue or will the TTC stop buying the nova busses now because of it?