Imagine being able to download a full-length movie onto your laptop in eight seconds, watch your kids play in the park from the comfort of your condo or connect to the Internet from under an umbrella at Sugar Beach.

Waterfront Toronto announced yesterday that residents who move into one of the city’s new waterfront communities will have something no one else in Canada has at home — unlimited access to one of the fastest Internet networks in the world, WiFi and a one-of-a-kind community portal.

What it is: A buried network of fibre-optic cable, plus a WiFi network available from all public spaces.

Where: In new residential/retail and commercial buildings on East Bayfront (off Queens Quay east of Jarvis) and West Don Lands (east from Parliament St. to the Don River and south from King St. to the rail corridor).

What it does: Provides unlimited residential Internet with download and upload speeds of 100 megabits a second, 500 times faster than typical North American networks. Movies download in eight seconds compared with an hour and a half through a phone line or 20 minutes via a cable modem.

It also allows residents to access a community portal on a TV, tablet or computer. The portal is in development, but could be used to make reservations at a local restaurant, or to see the view from cameras trained on public spaces.

Costs: Home users will pay $60 a month for Internet, WiFi and the community portal, a price guaranteed for 10 years. Upgraded packages, at $100, will include phone, Internet and TV. Business packages will start at $79 a month.

Who will use it: The first users will have the service in about 2014, when they move into Parkside, the Moshe Safdie-designed condo/retail/office development on the north side of Queens Quay east of Sherbourne St. (The nearby Corus building already has ultra-broadband, but it was put in independently.)

Why it matters: Waterfront Toronto believes a high-speed network will attract new business and the jobs that go with it. Only a few cities currently offer similar service — including Tokyo, London, Paris and the unlikely Chattanooga, Tenn., which won Volkswagen’s new North American manufacturing headquarters because of it.