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.

more …