It is clear that there is a growing awakening amongst a new generation of visionary and e-enlightened local politicians in cities and communities around the world that their future well being and prosperity – social and economic - will in large measure depend on having access to a future-proof and ‘open’, local information infrastructure. These enlightened political leaders are beginning to understand that there is a better route to an ‘e-future’ than that being promulgated through nationally (and sometimes internationally) developed and driven IT, telecoms and cable-TV public policy and regulation. Not only that, but they are actually seeing that access to such an open public local access network (OPLAN) ahead of other cities in their country as well as overseas, could yield a compelling competitive advantage when it comes to thriving in the 21st century information age. As far as they are concerned, “Bring on a digital divide!”

This is in marked contrast to most national political and public policy agendas on this topic, which argue from a ‘top down perspective’ and are focussed on ensuring that, almost ab initio, all cities and communities within their jurisdiction enjoy similar access to information infrastructure and services. Now that may sound commendable and politically correct in this age of equality, but it is absurd and, in my view, utterly counter productive. I have always marvelled at how Alexander Graham Bell managed to sell the first telephone before he had sold a second with which it could communicate. But imagine a situation in which he was prevented or discouraged from creating a massive ‘analogue-divide’ by having to ensure that everyone or no-one had his new technology.

So I applaud the visionary local politicians that see that today, as in earlier times, the development and implementation of ‘new infrastructure’ ahead of other adjacent towns, could yield real socio-economic prosperity. Make a visit to the Lyndon B Johnson (former US President) Library and Museum exhibit in Austin Texas and see the impressive ‘Power to the People’ exhibit. This tells the dramatic story of how LBJ was largely responsible for the introduction of electricity to the Texas Hill Country with dramatic impact on the region’s development, progress and economic welfare – and a dramatic impact on LBJ’s career as it impacted the ballot box and propelled him to the White House. I predict that the same will happen with some of those young local politicians whose political careers will be built on transforming their local communities through the development of OPLAN and all that this will enable.
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Well, sadly the summer vacation at our house in rural France is over and I am back to reality and London - and I have no shortage of OPLAN relevant material and events on which to comment!  First I should let you know how grateful I am to the French telco sector.  Rare words indeed from me!  Let me explain.  Our house is in the middle of nowhere - in the heart of Brittany surrounded by fields, sheep, cows and corn.  Precisely three years ago I was amazed to find that we were within ADSL range of the local France Telecom exchange.  After some research I opted for Cegetel and signed up for a basic 512 kb/s service for 14,90€ a month plus their associated voice package.   All worked well till last year I received smail mail notice that Cegetel was being acquired by neuf Telecom and that I must sign a new contract with the new company, Neuf Cegetel  - but if I did, then I would be rewarded by a 'free' month's service.  I did what I suspect many might do - put the notice in a pending pile and did nothing!...

The beginning of July 2007 held two things which caught my attention and may prove to be an interesting milestone in the road towards open access.  The first was big-scale.  Last week Mr Kevin Martin, the chairman of the US regulator, the FCC, came out and told a US newspaper what he has in mind for the 700 MHz spectrum auction in late 2008.  He talked about an 'open network' which would permit any wireless device to connect to it, and which would place no limits on the services that could be offered across it or by whom.  In other words, it seems he wants a pure mobile web, where customers can download any broadband application, and have no restrictions on the content that is served or on the devices that would be deployed by end users to access them.  It sounds to me like a flat rate, open IP architecture where devices will need only the most cursory adherence to the air interface, but where applications are pure IP, and most services are delivered over the web. Indeed, as one commentator has said, "It sounds like the halcyon days of the Personal Computer, where just about anyone could write an application." 
 
If Chairman Martin gets his way, this will spark the beginning of the end of the cellular walled garden as we know it, and offer a form of wireless network neutrality -  at least in this slither of spectrum.  He made passing reference to the idea that no downloadable software should be illegal, or should be able to harm the network, but apart from that hinted that there would be no restrictions allowed by the operator on applications – a far cry from the recently launched Apple iPhone, which is locked onto the closed AT&T network!
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I spend weekends, whenever possible, at our home in the rural County of Dorset.  The nearby town of Yeovil does not have a lot going for it but it does have a very successful football team which, over recent years, has enjoyed great success moving up the leagues and next weekend will be playing at the breathtaking new Wembley Stadium against BlackpooI for the right to move up to the Champions League - just behind the Premier League.  Quite something for this small Somerset town!
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I have just returned from Singapore where I was guest of the iDA for their Distinguished Infocomm Speaker programme.  Just before Christmas 2006, John Chambers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cisco Systems a similar contributor to iDA's Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Series which is certainly an encouraging indication of the importance which iDA (the 'infocomm regulator' for this very prosperous city-state) attaches to the issue of open access infrastructure.  As my topic I explored the issue of Singapore becoming the world's leading "Information Entrepôt", what that might mean, why Singapore is uniquely positioned to achieve such a goal and how an OPLAN would be an essential foundation stone for achieving such a goal.  You can access the presentation slides here and I have written a more extensive note on the unique position of Singapore to become the global OPLAN exemplar here.  Suffice to say, the hospitality of my hosts was warm and generous and the interest and commitment to open access infrastructure, impressive.

While in Singapore, I had to pay a visit to one of the famed digital superstores, Sim Lim Square, opened in 1987 and promoting itself with the tagline, "it's all here at Sim Lim Square".  This multi-storey building with a central atrium is crammed full digital consumer electronics in over 500 retail outlets.  Impressive though this was, the range of items and the prices were not markedly different to what I could see in London or New York - suggesting that with the internet providing ever more transparency to this market, prices are becoming globally competitive.  No, what hangs in my memory of Sim Lim is the wide cross section of people who were shopping there as if it were their local food store.  Grannies and suited businessmen rubbed shoulders with geeks and housewives - all arming themselves with more and more smart gizmos, confirming (if ever I needed it) that with this ever growing amount of peripheral intelligent devices, open access infrastructure will not be far behind. 

I also paid a visit to the very shiny SingTel Hello! retail store operated by the incumbent (Singapore Telecoms) and saw the usual bewildering array of handsets and tariff offerings.  But one particular promotion caught my eye.  It was aimed exclusive at the 32,000 plus university students in Singapore ... 'free' on campus calls, anytime, anyone.   I cannot help thinking that it is a risky marketing strategy to give the most intelligent and discerning sector of your entire population a taste of freedom and openness, and then expect them to forget all about it once they graduate and start shelling out for a service based on the old vertically integrated business model.  Let's wait and see whether this comes back to bite SingTel.

Back in Europe now, I just wonder whether Singapore will really get its act together and show the world a thing or two about OPLAN strategy?  I hope so.  Meanwhile, on the other side of the world in the US I see that the lawyers are turning this way and that over open access Wi-Fi networks carrying illegal content.  The latest story relates to a man who has been found guilty of possessing child pornography despite arguing that his open wireless internet network meant the case against him could not be proved.  Earlier cases relating to illegally sharing copyrighted music files, went the other way.  It seems to me that the legal profession needs to bone up on some basics of digital technology and logic.  These cases are as absurd as trying to prosecute me for letting a burglar stand in the street outside my house and use the light streaming through my curtain-free living room window onto the street to read his AtoZ guide in order to find his way to the house he wants to plunder. 
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I am prompted to write as a result of a vigorous discussion that has been going on for some days on the topic of "Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless" on the forum of the World Summit on Free Information Infrastructure (WSFII).  It started as far as I was concerned by a posting a week ago from my good friend Vickram Crishna.  He wrote the following,
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It should be no surprise to anyone to hear again from me that I regard Sweden as one of (if not the) most advanced countries in the world in terms of OPLAN development and deployment.  As is always the case, being ‘first’ sometimes carries its own penalties and Stokab, the open access fibre network in Stockholm which led the world by being 'first' over ten years ago, has certainly had some hurdles to overcome since then.  But last week I was in Stockholm with various supporters of the OPLAN Foundation and was impressed.  Here is something of what is going on....