Telecom & Utilities

Telecommunications | Energy and Utilities

Greater Toronto’s fully digital telecommunications infrastructure supports North America’s largest flat rate local telephone calling area, the continent’s highest percentage of wire line telecommunications converted to fiber optic cable, and the highest per capita use of wireless devices of any city in North America. Greater Toronto business enjoys a wide choice of fiber, coaxial cable, copper pair and wireless media.

The GTA enjoys competitively priced electricity, secure access to plentiful Canadian natural gas, oil and coal, as well as renewable sources of energy from wind power and deep water cooling technologies.

Telecommunications

The Greater Toronto Area boasts one of the most extensive networks of fiber optic cable in North America and a highly integrated telecommunications network including:

• North America's largest "free calling" area. Flat rate monthly fees allow unlimited calling to over 2.2 million telephones.
  
• Competitive service rates. Deregulation increases the choice for consumers.
  
• Easy access to U.S. international networks. GTA’s many telecommunications carriers provide all-digital switching, ISDN and ATM technology, common channel signaling, and seamless voice, video and data links with major U.S. carriers as well as overseas long-distance services.
  
• Cellular penetration. The GTA is located in the longest "cellular corridor" in the world - Quebec City to Windsor.
  
• Widespread digital and fiber infrastructure. Metro Toronto's (416) area code is North America's 1st all-digital area code. All Bell Canada switching centres use fiber to communicate with each other. Bell has installed fiber under most major Metro Toronto roads and installs fiber entrance cables in new buildings requiring 300 or more phone lines.
  
• An intelligent network. All GTA public network switches are linked to each other and to long-distance networks using the Common Channel Signaling System 7 (CCS7).
  
• A highly integrated telecommunications network with the following services:Business Lines, Centrex, Private Line, Frame Relay, ATM, xDSL, Internet, Long Distance, Toll Free, Transparent LAN, Ethernet, ISDN, Hosting, Security Services, Network Management, VoIP.

Greater Toronto telecommunications services are rapidly evolving to serve tomorrow’s new digital communications applications. The presence of hundreds of telecommunications service providers and equipment manufacturers ensures a robust supply of bandwidth and communications solutions.

Main telecommunications service providers in the Greater Toronto Area:

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Energy and Utilities

The GTA is physically and economically interconnected to North American transmission grids for electricity and natural gas, ensuring both the long term safety of supply for industry, as well as the long term market viability for new and emerging energy generation and savings technologies.

GTA hydrogen, wind, solar and deep water cooling technologies can create new salable energy, or they can replace for re-sale, energy being consumed by other means from Greater Toronto’s installed generating capacity.

Greater Toronto’s utilities operate state-of-the-art distribution grids and district energy systems. Sixteen of 26 GTA municipalities operate local municipal or ratepayer controlled electric distribution companies. Of these, Toronto Hydro is the largest municipally owned utility in North America after Los Angeles Power and Light.

Other GTA municipalities are served by Hydro One, Enersource Hydro Mississauga, Veridian Corporation and PowerStream.

Traditional fuel oil is widely used in Greater Toronto as new technologies continue to make oil consumption cleaner and more cost efficient. Natural Gas from western Canada remains a primary source of GTA energy. The GTA allows competition in the natural gas market. Some of the larger natural gas distributors in Greater Toronto are Enbridge Gas Distribution and Union Gas.

Water and Wastewater

All aspects of water production, transmission and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, storm water collection, and transmission and treatment are the responsibility of the City of Toronto and the regional municipalities.

As a publicly owned and operated utility, City of Toronto Water and Waste Water Services,
supplies water and sewage treatment services through four water filtration plants and four sewage treatment plants to the City of Toronto.

The Public Works department of Peel Region operates and maintains two water treatment plants, two wastewater treatment plants and 80 pumping stations that provide over one million Peel residents with clean water every day. In 2004, Peel Region entered into a service agreement to supply the Region of York with wastewater services to the year 2031. The York-Peel Water Supply Agreement benefits both Peel and York by sharing infrastructure costs and plant operating costs.

Halton Region owns and operates four water treatment plants and seven wastewater treatment plants throughout the Region. Water for Durham Region's water supply system comes from three sources: Lake Ontario for the southern municipalities; Lake Simcoe for Beaverton; and ground water wells for the remaining communities.

The City of Toronto and the regional municipalities across the Greater Toronto Area have always maintained state-of-the-art water and wastewater sanitation systems. Recent senior government programs and municipal initiatives have resulted in an ambitious water and wastewater infrastructure renewal program that will provide capacity long into the future at competitive costs.

Sources: Gartner Lee Limited, Comprehensive Analysis & Positioning of Energy & Environmental Industries in the GTA (June 2004); Regional municipalities’ websites.

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