Apart from providing a modern passenger transport system other cities have failed to emulate, what has Metrolink ever done for Manchester? Well, it could form the basis of a fibre-optic super-ring as Manchester looks to bring next-generation broadband to the whole city. Sue Woodward, the creative champion for Manchester and boss of the Sharp Project digital hub, said: “The science park has given us a major internet exchange but we need to make it reachable. Manchester’s advantage over other cities is that using Metrolink reduces the cost five-fold and makes it deliverable. Everything’s now agreed in principle, led by the Commission for the New Economy, and we’re now at the final stages.”
A project board has been set up to appraise costs and benefits, and the plans go before the Northwest Regional Development Agency board in March. Woodward said: “It requires phenomenal partnership working, but it’s the only way it can happen.”
The first part of the city to benefit will be that covered by Corridor Manchester, broadly the Oxford Road/Hulme southern part of the city centre that includes Manchester's universities and hospital campus.
Geo, appointed in January by Corridor Manchester and Manchester Digital Development Agency to install new fibre optic cables that will allow businesses and residents in the Oxford Road area to directly connect to next-generation fibre broadband, was represented on the panel by chief executive Chris Smedley, who described the deal as “Manchester’s first step to a digital future”.
Following Smedley as a speaker was Dave Carter, chief executive of Manchester Digital Development Agency. Responding to a question from the audience on the need to go beyond technologists in promoting what next-generation broadband can do, Carter said: “There’s been an underlying tendency among venture capitalists to look for the latest sexy idea, rather than help the widget-makers. We’ve got to do both. It’s not easy. Peter Mandelson’s now acknowledged that mistakes have been made and we need to give that support in textiles, pharmaceutical companies, widget-makers and the rest.”
Carter added that the way is still clear to expand beyond the Corridor should demand prove sufficient from business in the surrounding areas: “We just have to demonstrate that demand is there.”
Dave Mousley of visual effects business Red Vision said: “It’s not a case of Manchester needing to differentiate its offer, we just want fantastic connectivity. What this is about is the city providing a runway for as much traffic as we can. It has to be super-swift.”
The panel was completed by Brendan Dawes, creative director of Magneticnorth. Real change, he said, does not come from the top but from those with the fearless, questioning attitudes of youth. He spoke of a junior executive of his acquaintance who left Apple to join the founder of Twitter in developing a direct debit-taking device that plugs into iPhones. “The point is, he’s just a kid – he’s not a suit. This is a world-changing technology and it is the younger generation that sees these possibilities.”
Date: Fri 15th January, 2010
Venue: Bridgewater Hall, Manchester