Initiatives undertaken by the Singapore Government and the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) have led the country on the path to becoming a world leader as well as an information entrepôt.

Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Mr Malcolm Matson believes that implementing an Open Public LAN would help develop Singapore into a world-class "information entrepôt"

This was the view of Mr Malcolm J. Matson, President of the OPLAN Foundation which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to the advancement of open public local access networks (OPLAN) and the social and economic benefits they deliver to their communities when he was in Singapore on 13 April 2007, as the guest speaker of IDA's Distinguished Infocomm Speaker Series.

Mr Matson posed the question to attendees that, "If the free trade of goods and materials between Singapore and its airports and seaports and those of the world have contributed to creating such economic and social prosperity in the industrial age, how much more will be created if, in the information age, it leads the world in opening its computer and network ports to 'information' passage that is similarly free from constraints, duties and tariffs?"

Members of the audience at the Distinguished Infocomm Speaker seminar were interested to know Mr Matson's perspective on the government's role in developing the infocomm environment

The world is, according to Mr Matson, at a turning point in the age of a new industrial revolution: that of the Age of Information. It is how a country and community moves from here that will dictate whether it will be a leader or get left behind.

Mr Matson also shared that with initiatives like iN2015 and Wireless@SG in place, Singapore is well placed to take lead the world in the development, launch and implementation of Next Generation Networks (NGN) or as Mr Matson calls them, Next Genus Networks.

There are a number of factors working in Singapore's favour:

• Singapore's commitment to economic freedom and free trade;
• The government's political vision and leadership at the highest level;
• IDA playing a unique role as the infocomm master planner plus the Government public sector CIO;
• The country's ability to approach the future facing forward with a national 'can do' attitude;
• A system that embraces both the 'top down' and 'bottom up' approaches;
• A choice location with some 'big' fast moving neighbours to keep the country focused;
• Communications that make use of English as its primary language.

Mr Matson feels that an NGN infrastructure needs to be put in place by the community with community as a whole benefiting from it whether they are an individual, business or government body

However, Mr Matson also cautioned that traditional business models that were used in the past by service providers like telcos will not work for an NGN. "Having a company that has control like a monopoly dictating how much bandwidth you can have at a particular price will not work for Next Generation Networks. Doing so will slow growth and adoption. The infrastructure needs to be put in place by the community and have the community as a whole benefiting from it whether they are an individual, business or government body."

"Singapore has a unique advantage because the critical infrastructure needed to support such an NGN is being put in place by a government that has the political vision and leadership at the highest level to make Singapore the world leader," Mr Matson concluded.

For more information, visit:

• The OPLAN Foundation
• IN2015 - Singapore's 10-year Infocomm Masterplan
• Singapore's Next Generation National Broadband Network (NBN) and the pervasive Wireless Broadband Network (WBN) .
• http://www.infocomm123.sg/wireless_at_sg