Leaving Vancouver

I feel weird writing this entry as I never told you I was in Vancouver to begin with. After leaving NXTComm, I came to the west coast of Canada because there are a number of companies in the area worth seeing. I have learned a great deal about Vancouver these past days and I had no idea what to expect before arriving.

The first thing that is interesting is that all my meetings were near the center of town where my hotel is located. I have a rental car which I never used. So this city is a lot like Manhattan and like the other parts of Canada I have visited, the food is quite good.

My internet connectivity has been great here… It seems faster that 1xRTT but slower than Verizon EVDO. Objectively — it is about 100x times faster than broadband on the east coast of Canada and Ottawa and that makes no sense to me. When Terry Matthews reads this entry, I am sure he will make a few phone calls and get the situation resolved before my next visit. 😉 Sill, I try not use the network excessively because I racked up a $100+/day bill in voice and data charges the last time I visited the Great White North.

A word on the city. It is gorgeous here. Clean, well organized and there is a beautiful view of the water and 3 enormous mountains from the city. It is unlike other cities I have visited in North America and it seems like you can see everything better than in other cities. The air is cleaner.

Also, it gets dark around 10:00 pm. I try to stay on east coast time when I travel but it is so much more difficult when it is so bright at night.

The city has had cloudy/rainy weather for a few years and most people here complain about it but they all seem to love it here and I do as well. You get all the benefits of living in a clean city, great food, access to hiking, skiing and you can also find some excellent coffee around town.

I have some photos of my trip but the hotel broadband connection is slow enough to make you want to go back to paper and pencil and uploading 11 mega-pixel photos is something I have given up on.

Speaking of broadband, Andy Abramson and I discussed years ago setting up a site to help travelers figure out which hotels have good broadband and which do not. For the record — Hotel LeSoleil has free WiFi but it is pretty slow and not good for file sharing, videoconferencing, streaming audio, etc. If you wake up early however I have found that all hotel broadband is better.

Having said that, I should point out my two best broadband experiences are the Gaylord hotels in Texas and Orlando and the winner of the hotel broadband connection award is Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas where the download speeds are faster than the T3 line TMCnet has coming into it. If broadband speed is important to you, Planet Hollywood is where you must stay in Vegas.

I am off to the VPF event in San Francisco next week and I am speaking twice. I haven’t had a chance to put my presentations together but I will soon (sorry Shrihari) and I am excited to network and see my friends and colleagues. This event will be great as usual and I would love to see you there and I encourage you to stay till the end since I have the closing keynote. 🙂

  • Hussain.Rostam
    June 20, 2008 at 4:15 pm

    Hi
    It’s nice to see a successful Iranian after all negativity about Iran and people there on media,Go with God and good luck! 🙂

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