A Shanghai district won't have to worry about severed
fiber-optic cables, for it'll soon go totally wireless.
Last month's earthquake off Taiwan severed undersea fiber-optic
cables, disrupting Internet services and communications services
between the mainland and Taiwan, Hong Kong, the US and South Asia.
Work is still on to fix the cables.
City authorities have approved an ambitious plan to extend
wireless services across the heart of Jiading, a district on the
outskirts of Shanghai, by the end of this year.
That would make Jiading the first place on the mainland to be
linked by resilient radio waves instead of cables.
Jiading is famous as the venue for Formula One Chinese Grand
Prix. It was chosen by a non-profit think tank Intelligent
Community Forum (ICF) recently as one of the 21 winners of the
Intelligent Community Awards.
The ICF is based in New York and focuses on job creation and
economic development in the broadband economy. It uses the
"intelligent community" for what others call the wired city, smart
community or e-city.
Jiading has a population of 1.2 million and is about 20
kilometers from downtown Shanghai.
"It's industrialization and increasing informatization
foundation is solid," Jiading informatization commission deputy
director Hong Peijun said yesterday.
The ICF selected Jiading from about 200 cities, towns, villages
and metropolitan areas as one of the "Smart 21 Communities of 2007"
because it has better informatization infrastructure and remarkable
broadband Internet connectivity.
Almost all families in Jiading have a telephone, 72 out of every
100 households owns a computer, and 5 percent of its Internet users
have access to broadband. The figures are much higher than the
national level.
"The local government has put IT popularity and application on
top of its agenda to promote its widely used in e-governance,
e-business and corporate and social informatization," Hong
said.
More importantly, the authorities have proposed building a
"wireless environment" in central Jiading by the end of the year to
provide a more efficient world-class service to over 400,000
residents, visitors and businesses.
The service will be extended to all of Jiading's urban areas in
2008, expanding to all its core villages by the next year.
"We saw ICF's nomination as an approval of our achievement,"
Hong said. Modern districts such as Huangpu and Luwan were not
selected for being an integral part of Shanghai.
ICF's website says Jiading is known as an automotive cluster.
"Jiading seeks to build better quality life and attract high-tech
companies through fiber-to-the-building network, science and
technology investment funds and advanced e-government
programs."
The community sees Internet bandwidth as an essential utility,
vital to economic growth and public services, such as clean water
and undisrupted supply of electricity.
Every year, the ICF names 21 winners as Smart 21 Communities,
from which the "Top 7" are chosen. The final winner then gets the
Intelligent Community Award. This year's final winner will be
declared in May.
(China Daily January 9, 2007)