Log on to a digital revolution

LAPTOP computers would work like mobile phones and the internet would be available everywhere, without a phone line, under a plan to make Swindon England's first wireless' town.

Swindon Council says it wants to lead the rest of the country in a wireless revolution with a bid for £7m in Government funding.

Under the plan, etched out in the town's Digital Challenge bid, all of Swindon would be covered by a wireless internet network. This could mean residents could dial upthe internet and use email anywhere, and any time within the borough's boundaries.

All Swindon residents would also receive a free email address.

The town's leaders hope that going wireless will help build a technological tidal wave that will sweep the whole town, including its disadvantaged areas, to a brighter future.

Its submission says that going wireless would help end the "postcode discrimination" suffered by different areas in the town .

It says the council has been working with Intel for more than a year to get Swindon world class wireless technology.

The Digital Challenge offers as much as £7m from a variety of different Govern-ment departments to set up and road test new technology.

Swindon submitted its bid for the money at the end of April.

If it wins through to the next round, it will be given £200,000 to submit a detailed plan for how it would spend the £7m.

The Government is expected to name the successful town next year.

It says it is looking for a plan that takes "the next bold and radical steps" in creating a computer society.

Council leader Roderick Bluh said the town needed to stay ahead of the rest if it wanted its economy to grow.

He said the council was pushing hard to win the money, but even without it, would push on with the wireless project.

"It's the way of the future," Coun Bluh (Con, Dorcan) said.

"We are committed to the project.

"We want to be at the forefront of that technological innovation.

"Wherever somebody has a wireless device in the town, they can pick up a signal."

He said the town was "beginning a remarkable transformation" and becoming a digital city was an essential part of the process.

"Given the calibre of high-technology companies we have in Swindon and are looking to attract, I believe we are ideally placed to exploit the benefits for local people of having a digital infrastructure," he said.

"Swindon has always been at the forefront of innovation and invention and we will grasp the opportunity to continue this tradition by becoming a digital city."

New Swindon Company (NSC) chairman Peter James said that towns across the country had joined the digital race.

He said Swindon had to work hard to beat them if it wanted to keep its place as the best location in the UK to do business.

Mr James said the NSC was behind the council all the way in its "revolutionary" plan.

"We are 100 per cent supportive," he said.

"Every city has to do this.

"We want to be ahead of the game as we can be.

"Eventually we will be wireless. It's vital.

"Lots of towns in the UK have similar ambitions.

"We are all going to be there in 10 to 20 years. Why not get there a bit early?"

Mr James said the internet and email were so much a part of business that a fax or letter was now a rarity.

"I get excited when I receive a letter or a fax now, it's so rare," he added.

The next stage of the process is for the Government to make a shortlist of contenders.

What do you think?

SWINDON is embarking on what could be one of the most important times in its history.

Plans to transform the town centre are already taking shape.

The Front Garden development is on the verge of taking off, a new university for the town is in the pipeline, and the Science Museum is hoping to become a national tourist attraction.

It is all happening and it's all happening in Swindon.

Do you agree with the views about the future of the town expressed here?

What do you think the priorities should be?

We want you to get involved in the debate.

If you have a vision for the town of your own we want to hear it.

Contact the Adver newsdesk at 01793 501806 or by email at newsdesk@newswilts.co.uk

Welcome to Britain's new media Hollywood

With a host of exciting projects looming, the face of Swindon is changing. In the latest of our series looking at the future of the town, Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, shares his vision.

SWINDON has a real opportunity to turn itself into a centre for new media in the digital era.

Traditional regulated broadcasting is changing at an enormous speed, with more and more parts of it being moved out from London, at the same time as new media are transforming entertainment and information in this country.

If Swindon can provide in its new town centre attractive facilities for new media entrepreneurs and producers it can reinvent itself as a prosperous and thriving town for the next generation.

It must be based around a world-class academic facility, pioneering and developing new technologies, and, if the University of Bath locate in Swindon, this could be a central part of what they could bring to the town.

This could be surrounded by customised buildings providing a high-speed electronic infrastructure and if the council and developers could make these available at advantageous rates this would clearly make them all the more attractive to the new media industries.

Experience suggests that once a core infrastructure is in place, bringing together academic facilities with state-of-the-art buildings, clusters of businesses both support and compete with each other.

In the past it is such clusters that have made Hollywood and Silicon Valley so extraordinarily successful.

At this stage in its development on the verge of the transformation of its town centre if Swindon Borough Council can demonstrate the right vision and commitment, I see no reason why Swindon should not become Britain's new media Hollywood.