Open Public Local Access Network
= OPLAN
Description
"The communications world that grew up around the telephone was shaped by a business model based upon managing and allocating 'scarcity' - scarcity of network capacity, scarcity of customer equipment and scarcity of central-office switching facilities. But the three seminal technological developments of the latter half of the 20th century have completely turned this world upside down.
These developments:
(i) the digital computer
(ii) optical fibre transmission media
(iii) software controlled spread spectrum radio.
It is now a world of abundance. OPLANS are the natural final link in the chain to make this abundance freely available to everyone. OPLANs can transform the socio-economic life of all communities in the 21st century and turn the dreams of the information revolutions into reality."
(http://www.oplan.org/concept/what.html)
Characteristics
"there are some distinctive defining characteristics of OPLANs that link them all together, and differentiate them from today's telecommunications networks. OPLANs, to a greater or lesser degree, have the following characteristics:
- they only serve a local geographic community or location, ranging from a street or business park through a rural community to an entire city
- they provide "open access" and are for use by any party located within the community - they serve both the public and private sectors, corporate and residential citizens, service and content creators as well as consumers
- they are owned and controlled totally independently of any service or content that runs over them
- they are structured, financed and owned so as to serve the common good; the value and benefit of the technology remains with the users
- they are not owned by a PTO/ licensed telecommunications operator
- they deploy modern digital technology and offer true broadband (symmetrical) connectivity"
(http://www.oplan.org/concept/what.html)
More Information
The OPLAN Foundation