We CAN do this Wellington!Case in point … why do we not have broad­band access to every­one in the (wider) city?

This from Sin­ga­pore:

Sin­ga­pore gets free wire­less con­nec­tiv­i­ty with Wireless@SG while no one gets left behind in the dig­i­tal rev­o­lu­tion. Find out about how the Sin­ga­pore Gov­ern­ment is reach­ing out to more Sin­ga­pore­ans and equip­ping every­one to take full advan­tage of the dig­i­tal oppor­tu­ni­ties that are open­ing up.

So why don’t we do that?

Is it a case, as some think (in the com­ments), that the Gov­ern­ment should stay out of pro­vid­ing infra­struc­ture and leave it to the pri­vate indus­try (to which I assume they are refer­ring to Tele­com or Tel­str­a­Clear)?

To be fair the Coun­cil is doing some­thing about it — read their broad­band plan

Welling­ton City Coun­cil­lors have agreed to a vision that could see afford­able, high-speed broad­band access through­out the city by 2012.

But we all know how fast tech­nol­o­gy moves (have you seen the just announced, 2cm deep Apple MacAir?) and so this promise for 2012 by our Coun­cil seems, at best, lim­it­ed in vision and at worse, a huge missed oppor­tu­ni­ty. For instance, what we’re promised for 2012 South Korea has had for 3 years.

A pos­si­ble solu­tion for you after the jump …

Then again, why leave it all up to the Coun­cil? Why can’t you and I get our butts into gear and do some­thing about it? Why can’t we work with the Coun­cil — some­thing like, they sup­ply the back­bone into the areas and the com­mu­ni­ties wire them­selves up from there.

What?

Mira­marMike wires up Mira­mar from a Coun­cil laid broad­band cable through The Cut­ting and up Park Road?!? Crick­ey, how much is Mira­marMike on if he thinks he can become a Tel­co! If Tel­str­a­Clear can’t make mon­ey out it then who the heck does he think he is to attempt such fol­ly?!?

No, not quite what I mean. But try this pro­pos­al for size:

  1. The Coun­cil lay fibre through the city and out to the sub­urbs — as is their state plan
  2. Con­nec­tions to those close to the pipe are made
  3. These con­nec­tions use some­thing like Mer­a­ki* to then extend the net­work out for the good of the rest of us, FOR FREE

What do you think — need more info, try these to start off with:

We do this ladies and gen­tle­man and this glo­ri­ous city of ours will be held up high by all that is geek and con­nect­ed in the world … and you know that would be a good feel­ing.

ARE YOU WITH ME?

* Mer­a­ki, in a nut­shell:

Mer­ak­i’s mis­sion is to bring afford­able Inter­net access to the next bil­lion peo­ple. Mer­ak­i’s new approach to wire­less net­work­ing empow­ers indi­vid­u­als and groups to bring access to local com­mu­ni­ties, any­where in the world.

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