Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Wireless and e-Government

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 07 Feb 2003 17:08:30 -0500

------- Original Message --------
From: [email-masked]
Subject: Wireless and e-Government

TUNING UP YOUR WI-FI.

by Derek Parkinson [email-masked]

Whether at work, home or in a public building, accessing the internet currently 
tends to mean you have to be sitting in one place, typically in front of a PC. 
Wireless internet services have the power to change this, however, providing 
access to people on the move, through mobile phones, laptops and handheld 
devices. 

The two main wireless technologies currently in use in the UK are 'Wireless 
Application Protocol' (WAP) and its derivatives for mobile phone access, 
and 'Wi-Fi', fixed wireless network technology which uses high frequency radio 
waves to broadcast data signals over a small local area (typically 100 metres 
or so).

Although the UK government has yet to develop detailed official policy on the 
development of wireless services by the public sector, its broad approach was 
laid down in September last year in the Office of the e-Envoy's 'channels 
framework' (http://fastlink.headstar.com/channels). According to the framework, 
delivering public services to devices such as mobile phones and palmtop 
computers will form a key part of developing user-centred services.

Then in December, e-Envoy Andrew Pinder pinpointed wireless services as a key 
new challenge for e-government in an address to the Cisco public services 
summit in Stockholm. "The ideas and drivers of e-government are now better 
understood, but m-government will hit us soon. People expect no less of 
government than of providers in other sectors," he said 
(http://fastlink.headstar.com/cisco - note this is a Powerpoint file).

So what is happening in other sectors? In the private sector, the most popular 
mobile internet services are messaging, gaming, sports information and news. 
Yet even with this fairly narrow profile, there is a significant level of 
interest. In October 2002, the Mobile Data Association (http://www.mda-
mobiledata.org) released the first set of mobile internet use statistics for 
the UK, revealing there are more than 25 million mobile internet-enabled 
handsets in the UK, and some 340 million internet pages were downloaded to 
handsets in September alone (http://fastlink.headstar.com/mobile).

In the public sector, early mobile services have largely consisted of pilot 
projects for mobile phone e-voting technologies in local elections. But more 
recently one or two councils have started to innovate further, with Rushmoor 
Borough Council running a successful experiment last year to use text messaging 
to publicise targeted leisure service information; Harrow allowing residents to 
use messaging to report service problems to the council; and Derbyshire, 
Erewash and Test Valley set to follow suit with similar projects (see E-
Government Bulletin, issue 127, 10 December 2002). 

One particularly promising area for new developments is the dissemination of 
traffic and transport information. For example Maidstone District Council has 
launched a WAP service that delivers constant updates on local parking spaces; 
Bracknell Forest is looking at delivering customised alerts warning of 
roadworks or exceptional congestion; and Dublin trials of an text message 
system for buying parking tickets has received a positive public response and 
is likely to be taken up by other cities in Ireland and the UK (see E-
Government Bulletin, issue 129, 28 January 2003).

However, beyond the transmission of brief messages, the richness of data needed 
for many more complex or transactional e-government services means that access 
by mobile phones is simply not practical because of their small screen size. It 
is here that 'Wi-Fi' could come into its own.

Until now, Wi-Fi has typically been used as a way for companies or other large 
organisations to set up internal data networks without the inconvenience of 
dragging large quantities of cable through office spaces. However, it has also 
given rise to the concept of a public 'hot-spot', a location such as a hotel or 
airport where people have broadband access to services via laptops or handheld 
devices. 

In the UK, BT plans to build the first national public Wi-Fi programme 
beginning with around 400 hot-spots by June 2003 and rising to some 4,000 sites 
by June 2005. The company anticipates that most will be located in motorway 
service stations, airports, rail stations, conference centres, hotels and cafes 
(see http://fastlink.headstar.com/wifi).

A small market town on the edge of Dartmoor may not seem an obvious place to 
look for a government experiment with wireless networks, but poor 
infrastructure means that delivering broadband content is not a practical 
option for many areas of rural counties such as Devon. Accordingly, the 
Buckfastleigh Broadband Community Network (BBCN - http://www.buckfastleigh.net) 
was set up to examine the potential local impact of high speed radio networks, 
its infrastructure operational since last November.

The project is receiving 500,000 pounds over two years from the Department of 
Trade and Industry and the South West of England Regional Development Agency. 
It will focus on how to overcome digital exclusion in rural areas where the 
communications infrastructure is poor, but where online resources could deliver 
substantial benefits to scattered communities.

"It's a way to bring broadband to areas where there has been market failure," 
says BBCN managing director Kathryn Hughes. "We'll be driven by what the 
community say they want. Different people have different motivators and 
drivers, and we want to encourage people to form local groups and express those 
different interests."

Particular interest has come from the local primary school, which is 
encouraging pupils to publish their own content on the web, and plans to forge 
links with other schools. The project's partners also include Devon County 
Council and Teinbridge District Council. 

According to Hughes, although the core network has only been operating for two 
months, there have been no problems with radio reception. "Something we're very 
proud of is the fact that you can sit in a pub in Holne, a village about three 
miles away, and access the network even though there's no direct line of 
sight," she says.

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