alwayslookaround (and occasionally tell about it)

The first interesting announcement is that Toronto will offer city wide wi-fi broadband access. Another great city takes a great step in the right direction. Sadly for me, it’s not NYC. Or any US city (I’m still a believer!). I can only hope Vancouver hops on board some time before the 2010 Olympics, which would be perfect timing for me.

Especially noteworthy about the Toronto plan is that they will offer the service free for the first 6 months. Their hope is that people will realize how valuable the service is, and then subscribe to it when it changes over to a paid service plan. Very smart move, as we all know from the old “this one is free, but I’ll have to charge you next time” routine. Yes, they’ll come back for more. And hopefully they’ll tell their friends about it too. :-)

The second interesting announcement is that TiVo and Verizon have signed a deal to allow TiVo users to set their recording from their mobile phone. Nothing too surprising, since it’s already very clear that the convergence of internet/digital media/mobile is already well on its way. What is surprising is that the deal looks like it will help Verizon more than it will help TiVo. Could TiVo users pave the way for speeding up the development of mobile offerings? My bet says they can help a little. But I thought the same thing about Japan and Europe paving the way for better and faster US mobile developments. Lack of a single network standard has continued to foil that plan. In any case, I like the move by Verizon. Now if only they could get their customer service act together…