Full Speed Ahead on the Information Highway
The region of Vendsyssel can be envied by other Danish regions, not just for their two new highways. Thanks to the funds provided by the IT Lighthouse, a number of projects are now up and running to test the information highway of North Denmark – and the speed limits are set by technology only …
Information technology is not just about what we present, provide and facilitate – it’s also about how it is done. This is IT-infrastructure. Once upon a time – a few years ago – we set out with a modem and a dial-up phone connection. Today we are using ISDN, ADSL, optic cables and wireless transmission of data like the GPRS system. And these are merely a few examples. What was state-of-the-art and the fastest leading edge technology yesterday is already slow and obsolete today.
Some of the Digital North Denmark projects had to face this during the course of the project – several projects have experienced the need to ”shift their ground” and go for a technology that is faster than the one originally intended. Others work with entirely new IT infrastructures that are still coping with teething troubles. Others again had to face it – this is fast and state-of-the-art – but the price is far beyond what citizens are prepared to pay.
Still, this is also part of what the Digital North Denmark is all about: to test new ideas and concepts, to establish collaborations between enterprises that are normally competition and public organisations - and barrier-breaking ways of putting the technology to use- in a financially safe environment. Otherwise such experiments would never be carried through. And a great deal of them are actually quite successful!
One of the major projects now in the end-user test phase is TV2/Nord Digital. The project is working to utilise existing transmitter masts – also called the terrestrial broadcasting network – in digital transmission. The idea is to provide Internet-enabled services like newsletters in parallel to conventional TV channels – via the indoor aerial.
In February 2002 the Aalborg TVR broadcasting enterprise and the Sonofon cellular network carrier concluded an experiment using a ”tailored” wireless Internet system – transmitted via GPRS. And the Tele Danmark telephony carrier is running a project testing other technologies.
However, the Netforum of North Denmark has had a long deep gaze in the crystal globe and came up with an interesting suggestion to the way the information highways of North Denmark should be established in order to allow access for all – not just for those in the three or four largest cities – to have the same possibilities to access high-speed connectivity to the world. Read their conclusion on their web site: www.nordjysknetforum.dk
Read more about each IT-infrastructure-project – Please refer to the list below this article.
The BIT Wagon
Netforum and KMD Netbroker of North Denmark
Personalized Mobile Broadband Services (PMBS)
TV2 / Nord Digital
 Printerfriendly version |
