Surfing Over Fjords

Isolated by the region's dramatic fjords and with a population of less than 400, Modalen, Norway, was picked by a consortium of high-tech companies—Norwegian wireless firm NERA, hardware maker PCTVnet, and Cisco Systems—for an experiment to connect a whole town entirely through wireless technology. Every home, public service, school, and business in Modalen is eligible to receive a TV set-top box called a HomePilot that gives users high-speed access to services such as online banking, shopping, e-mail, interactive TV, and IP video telephony.

Setup of the Multimedia@Modalen pilot project was completed in seven weeks, part of an overall undertaking of the Norwegian government to achieve nationwide wireless broadband coverage by 2004. Project founders say that Modalen will be used as "a display window for Norwegian broadband technology."

"The Modalen municipality is an outstanding example of how e-community can be more than hot air," says Kjell-Erik Tenold, general manager of Cisco Systems Norway. "They have actually shown it is possible to interconnect a whole society through e-thinking."

Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.