Singapore, the tiny island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula just 85 miles north of the Equator, is the smallest country in South East Asia.  But it has big ambitions when it comes to staking out an important place in the information age.  In 2005, an ambitious 10 year masterplan was launched, entitled, 'Intelligent Nation 2015' (iN2015) to help Singapore realise the full potential of the information technologies.   The programme is led by the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (iDA), Singapore's regulator for the sector but, as its name implies, far more future and development oriented than most.  A key element of the iN2105 vision is the plan for a ubiquitous OPLAN throughout Singapore of massive capacity and truly open access in its operation. 

Singapore's iN2105 vision is described under three headings:

Innovation
iN2015 will fuel creativity and innovation among businesses and individuals by providing an infocomm platform that supports enterprise and talent.

Integration
iN2015 will connect businesses, individuals and communities, giving them the ability to harness resources and capabilities - speedily and efficiently - across diverse businesses and geographies.

Internationalisation
iN2015 will be the conduit for providing easy and immediate access to the world’s resources as well as for exporting Singapore’s ideas, products, services, companies and talent into the global markets.

At the time of launching iN2105, Mr Lam Chuan Leong, Chairman of the iN2015 Steering Committee said, "Singapore is in a competitive race with other countries.  It is no longer a matter of moving first, but a matter of moving faster - ahead of others to stay relevant and competitive. It is all the more important that we take a look at the role that 'Infocomm' can play to help Singapore stay highly competitive, to look ahead into the next 10 years, and implement strategic initiatives that will keep Singapore in the fore."

The extent and all embracing approach of the iN2015 programme can be seen in the wide range of reports that have already been published.   The report from the 'Infrastructure, Services and Technology Development Sub-Committee' recommends, "... the deployment of an IPv6-ready, next generation National Fibre Network that will deliver gigabits broadband access to every home, school and business.  This fixed wireline network should be complemented by a pervasive nation-wide wireless broadband network to meet the access needs of individuals everywhere and everytime." 

This goal has now matured into the Next Generation National Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN) programme and in late 2006, expressions of interest were invited from the private sector which resulted in over 30 companies or consortia putting down a marker.  Subsequently, these have been refined to a list of 12 pre-qualified bidders.   What is significant is that NBN is unashamedly committed to an 'open access' strategy with support for this coming from a high political level.  Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Second Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts and the sponsoring minister for IDA, told Parliament on 3rd March 2007.  “The NBN will be capable of offering ultra-high speeds of 1 Gbps or more, and aims to provide affordable broadband for 95 per cent of all homes and businesses by 2012.  An open access architecture will ensure competitiveness in our 'Infocomm' sector, and facilitate the development of diverse, new services for businesses and individuals.”

But why might Singapore be better placed than many cities to realise this bold OPLAN vision?  There are three key factors working in Singapore's favour.  Firstly, it is a 'city-state'.  That is to say, the local public policy and regulatory regime is also the national public policy and regulatory regime - just one and the same tier.  Around the world, national interest in 'next generation' infrastructure is keen, but given that the former national-monopoly telecoms operators were, by and large, privatised in their national, vertically integrated state, the formulation of public policy to promote 'next generation' ICT infrastructure has also been based on nationwide strategies.  In our opinion, this has been flawed since it ignores a key and essential element of the natural genesis of this 'next genus' infrastructure - namely the 'L' of OPLAN - the fact that it is a grass-roots, locally driven and determined initiative.  Nationwide efforts to develop such infrastructure, driven as they frequently are by poltiical imperatives of avoiding 'digital divides' are mistaken.  This national 'top-down' approach, works entirely contrary to the local and city-level political motivation to bring into being a key infrastructural differentiator to enable that city or community to outperform in the global information economy against other cities which lack such open access infrastructure.  These cities with their visionary local political leadership appreciate that a truly open access infrastructure will be key to attracting inward investment and valuable knowledge workers who appreciate the enhanced quality of life and public service that such an OPLAN will afford.   But, in many industrial nations, when a city through inspired leaership does actually gain a vision for an OPLAN, it is faced with having to deal with a regulatory regime and public policy which is often ranged against it.  In Europe, this is further complicated by having to deal with trans-national (i.e. European Commission) as well as national policies and standards.  Singapore has no such problem - whatever the "city" of Singapore decides in terms of an OPLAN infrastructure, the "state" of Singapore will endorse.

A second important factor in Singapore's favour is its deep commitment to free trade and economic freedom.  The Economic Freedom of the World - 2006 Annual Report ranks Singapore second in the world on an index which measures the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries are supportive of economic freedom.  The cornerstones of economic freedom are personal choice, voluntary exchange, freedom to compete, and security of privately owned property. Thirty-eight data points are used to construct a summary index and to measure the degree of economic freedom in five areas:

• size of government
• legal structure and security of property rights
• access to sound money
• freedom to trade internationally
• regulation of credit, labour and business
  

Singapore is second only to Hong Kong and ahead of all other nations.  And  moreover the report states, "The economies most open to foreign trade were Hong Kong and Singapore, followed by a number of European nations such as Luxembourg, Ireland, and Belgium."   It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose that if Singapore understands that it has been the free trade of goods and materials between its airPORTS and seaPORTS and those of the rest of the world that has been responsible for creating such economic and social prosperity in the industrial age, that it will not take much for the political leadership in Singapore to understand that in the information age, the 'openness' (and freedom from artifically imposed constraints, duties and tariffs) of its COMPUTER and NETWORK PORTS, will lead to similar prosperity in terms of economic and social wealth for the entire community.

Finally, there is the issue of political commitment, understanding and 'will' at the highest levels.  Singapore seems to have that too.  In his Budget Speech made on February 17th, 2006, Prime Minister  Lee Hsien Loong said, “Singapore government intends to put in place a new national broadband network that is much faster than what is available today. It will offer fast, efficient connectivity to all – in schools, in offices and homes, and even on the move.  It will help us plug into the global knowledge grid, and stay competitive with other cities.”  

And more recently, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, The Second Minister For Information, Communications and The Arts (the Ministry responsible for iDA) made the following statement in Parliament on 3rd March 2007, "... We envisage that the National Broadband Network will be capable of offering ultra-high speeds of 1 Gbps or more, and aims to provide affordable broadband for 95% of all homes and businesses that subscribe to it by 2012.  An open access architecture will ensure competitiveness in our 'Infocomm' sector as it will keep prices low and affordable, which in turn will determine the up-take rates. This will lead to the development of diverse, new services for businesses and individuals.”

So anyone wanting to see an early OPLAN deployment should keep a watchful eye on Singapore.  It may just yet provide the world with the 'mind-opening' exemplar that will trigger a rapid adoption of OPLAN principles.