Dublin Wifi

Dublin City Council (the 21st Century version of the Corpo) is considering setting up a Wifi to cover Dublin. Really? Apparently it'll only cost between €10-€20 million. A snip, but presumably it'll cost something to run annually on top of this. Anyway, The Telecoms and Internet Forum (TIF) are already whining that this government interference and stifling competition, that it could quote "damage broadband take-up in Ireland". Riiiiiggght, because broadband takeup has been going so well recently. Let's remember that in Dublin 15% of people still aren't able to get Broadband. That's in Dublin the capital city of one of the richest countries in the world. Meanwhile you may as well abandon hope if you are part of the 42% unable to get DSL in Connaght). I happen to be one of these  unlucky Dublin 15%. I live in Glasnevin in the "Dublin Central" administrative area (so obviously getting DSL is out of the question).

Anyway, what is so wrong with covering Dublin in Wifi? What is wrong with having free basic access? It is not like the incumbents are doing such a stand-up job. You can't get Broadband all over Dublin and the customer service of the incumbents really do leave a lot to be desired. Well here's something to think about. If we think of broadband access as a basic utility like gas, electricity or water, there are two basic things we should recognise:

• The move over the last 20 years in UK and Ireland has been to privatise these utilities. This competition has undoubtedly led to cost-savings in some areas (gas, electricity ) but real structural problems in others (water). To take them out of government hands and provide competition.
  
• If Dublin City Council are providing a new utility, that costs X million to run each year, who will be paying for it? Eventually, if this is utility model, wouldn't we get a bill.  What's the business model? Advertising based?
  

The competition aspect that TIF raises I think is a currently a red-herring. Remember Northern Ireland (predominantly rural area) has 100% Broadband penetration. Until we have this in Ireland and especially Dublin, anything which can stimulate competition is a good thing.

iPhone - Linux got there first

Gizmodo has nice picture of a linux phone which looks freakishly like the iPhone. Crazy.
The iPhone will sell by the bucketload. Why? Because it's a fashion phone. This is the really weird thing that most blogs have missed.

How many people use the features of their phones - I mean phones here and not just smartphones. Camera - lots of people have low usage of it. Calendar, task manager - I've heard of them. People will want it cos it's slick.

Will it change the way people think of phones. Nope, but there are some really nice touches (mouse gestures for zooming, orientation detection, turning off the light when it's close to your head). But the spec (for Europe anyway) is a wee bit light. Now a phone that I could use as a wii controller that would be cool.