Cable and DSL penetration is pretty good in most Canadian cities, and at least one company I know of provides third-party (PPPoE provided through the regional ILECs) ADSL connections from retail point of sale locations through their network to multiple payment processing companies. I don't know what that company charges for this service but Bell Canada offers 'basic' business ADSL service (download speeds of up to 1 Mbps and upload speed of up to 640 Kbps) for an existing phone line for about the same price as an additional business phone line. Processing is faster this way - no dialing and connecting time, no contention for access to the phone line between multiple POS terminals, FAX machine, voice use, etc. - so it is probably an economically attractive service.
----- Geoffrey Welsh
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