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Australian newspaper “The Age’ has created a list of top ten digital cities of the world based on the following criteria: Broadband speed, cost and availability, wireless internet access, technology adoption, government support for technology, education and technology culture, and future potential.
The top ten digital cities are:
- Seoul
- Singapore
- Tokyo
- Hong Kong
- Stockholm
- San Francisco and Silicon Valley
- Tallinn
- New York
- Beijing
- New Songdo City (due to be completed in 2010)
The newspaper presents the performance of each city in the above mentioned criteria. Especially:
In Seoul, broadband is available in four out of five Seoul households and costs just $40 a month for speeds up to 100Mbps. Nine out of 10 residents also have mobile phones.
Sixty-five per cent of Singaporean households have broadband. Last December the Singapore Government said it would roll out free wireless broadband across the island and more than 400,000 Singaporeans already have registered for the service. The government also plans to deliver wired broadband speeds of up 1Gbps by 2012.
In Tokyo, mobile phones are people’ s connectivity interface of choice. Japan also had nearly 8 million fibre-to-the-home broadband subscribers in December 2006 and, according to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, 75 per cent of Japanese residents enjoy 100Mbps fibre-optic broadband at $30 a month.
Hong Kong leads the way to the full digital experience. City’s Internet Protocol TV service, which delivers more than 70 channels of TV over broadband internet, including movies, education, lifestyle and news has 750,000 subscribers – a third of households. 73 per cent of households have broadband witch costs $40 a month for speeds up to 100Mbps.
According to the newspaper:
“Asian cities scored well on broadband speed and availability, mainly because they have concentrated populations in a small land area. Seoul’s excellent wireless coverage, along with government programs such as Seoul Digital City, gave the city top billing.
Stockholm, San Francisco and Silicon Valley lack the affordability of fast broadband in Asian cities but enjoy high levels of education and a culture in favour of technology. In New York, a leading financial hub, access to wireless hotspots is also exceedingly good.
Tallinn and Beijing are cities to watch. Tallinn’s government already leads the way in e-government, while Beijing continues to roll out technology through the city ahead of the Beijing Olympics.
Upon completion, New Songdo will likely be the ultimate digital city. Even as a work in progress, it makes the list.’
Source
The Age: Tech capitals of the world
Via: GigaOM Blog