runormal said:
I grew up on a farm, and I do not believe that Hamilton only has Dial-Up. I would like you to provide me with either a postal code/municipality so that I can look up the coverage. Because my small town of 900 peoples 2 and half Hours south west of Ontario has at least 5 mbps, and the local company was talking about laying fibre. My dad who lives outside of the town (10 minutes) on a farm has highspeed. (Speed unknown, but fast enough to stream hockey games)
What did you have before your optic fibre was laid? I'm sure you had at least 256 kb/s..
Well done Runormal. You my friend are wiser to the ways of the world (and Southern Ontario) than Dapaterson and spotted the nuance that should have been in my post (but weren't because I wanted to stick it to Dp.).
Let's start with my mother-in-law. While she lives in Hamilton (as that city now exists after the amalgamation of 2001) her farm is located in the large tract of farmlands located North-West of the main urban area, in what was the country part of the town of Flamborough in the old Hamilton-Wentworth county. She is about 14 Km from downtown Hamilton (King and James) as the bird flies. Cable tv doesn't reach there, as she is about 4Km out of any urban area, and she is too far from the telephone exchange to get high speed so no DSL. She got nice notice from Bell last Christmas season, indicating they will be installing finer optic cable in the course of the summer.
My point to Dapaterson, however is that he can't compare what's available in urbanized areas with the non-urbanized areas, even in Southern Ontario. We have friends whose farms, on the North side of Toronto, have a beautiful view of TO's skyline about 15 kms away. On a clear day you can see each skyscraper individually and name them. Yet, they need satellite for TV reception and the only high speed internet they get is on their cell phone network.
But here's the thing (and take that Dapaterson
), you can't run heavy use of your computer or a home wi fi over the cell phone service. And contrary to Dp's position that a cell phone is all you need for emails and light browsing, that position is that of a young person ignorant of the effects of age. When he hits 55 and older, he will realize that your sight is not what it used to be and that those F@^%$& small characters are harder and harder to read (in fact, I believe this is what led to the development of the tablets: the first generation of portable computer geeks was getting older and couldn't read their ever smaller cell phones screens), and after 65, limitations of motor control in the hands make doing many things with your hands more difficult. So, typing on those little cell phone touch-screens keyboards becomes an exercise in total frustration (especially when coupled with auto-correct trying to read your mind). This is not a "generation" thing. It has nothing to do with lack of knowledge of computers or cell phones. It's just a matter of aging and we will go through the same thing (I have already started - my sight is not what it used to be and I am getting to hating small screens and characters). So Dapaterson (and many if not most of us) need to learn lessons in aging before imposing this on older people as the way to communicate with the government.
As for me here, near Montreal, I was in the same situation as my mother-in-law: 20 Km from downtown but out of the range of my phone exchange for DSL, and, at 2Km out of the village did not have cable TV (sorry, Dp!). In fact, the cable company would have been happy to provide me with the service so long as I agreed to pay the 2 Km of cable and its installation along the way all by myself (I think their quote was for almost 3,000$). Of course, they were then to be free to offer the service to anyone between my place and the village at no compensation to me.
