Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Tech: Sydney to get free wireless

Wohoo! The State government is planning to enable free wireless internet access.

It's been announced for the Sydney CBD, and a few other urban centres in Sydney. My guess is it would include North Sydney, Chatswood, Paramatta, and possibly Hurstville or Liverpool.

It's a real winner for personal internet access. At the very least, you can sit in a public library with a wireless laptop, and you're away.

But in particular - and this is where it's coming from - it's a powerful business enabler.

Anybody can communicate/collaborate on the go, via PDA or laptop.

Very forward-thinking.


1 comment:

S Simmonds said...

Update 1-May-08

Of course this must have been too good to be true. Latest news puts the kybosh on this: "the Government had evaluated proposals from 15 providers keen to build the network but concluded it wasn't practical based on technical and financial grounds". The article also says "In the US, free wireless schemes in Chicago, Houston and San Francisco have been dumped after failing commercially" - although the way this plan was phrased, it wasn't meant to be a commercial venture per se. Rather suggests the initiative wasn't well thought through in the first place.

Details: http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/free-sydney-wifi-plan-bites-the-dust/2008/05/01/1209235036576.html