19 May 2004

Council Supports Smartlinx3

Hutt City Council last night approved the appointment of Prashanta Mukherjee as its representative on the board of Smartlinx3 for a period of two years.

"Prashanta has been instrumental in assisting Council to develop its broadband strategy and has considerable knowledge of the ICT and telecommunications sectors," said Kirk MacGibbon, Communications Manager.

The appointment is for a term of two years.

In December 2003, Hutt City Council approved funding of $75,000 to further the development of the broadband project called Smartlinx3.

Upper Hutt and Porirua city councils are also shareholders, along with six private sector entities.

"Ensuring local businesses have access to affordable broadband services is key to successfully retaining existing businesses and attracting innovative new businesses to Hutt City," said Kirk MacGibbon.

Wellington Region Gold Award Supreme winners, gaming company Sidhe International, gave affordable access to broadband as one of the reasons they moved from Hutt City to Wellington.

The Smartlinx3 initiative is modelled on Wellington City's highly successful City Link, which provides broadband services to Wellington city's businesses at far cheaper rates than are widely available in Hutt City and Porirua.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>