Spider Net

1994/07/01 Aizpurua Sarasola, Joxerra Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Komunikazioak

In the cities of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, we often see sidewalks and roads lifted as a result of the excuse of introducing one tube or another. In these last “uprisings” it has been heard that optical fiber has been introduced, but there are few people who know what it has been done or what intentions there are about optical fiber.

To say that by the fall of this year in Bilbao, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Donostia-San Sebastián the different services that the Basque Government has will be connected by fiber optics will not be very representative for many people. To say that within a couple of years fiber optics will reach companies is to open up new opportunities for businesses, from data searches, information transmissions, product sales, etc., which means something for the company. Finally, to say that within four or five years it will reach our homes, and I think we will be facing a revolution like when writing was invented.

The fiber optic network, compared to conventional copper networks, differentiates between taking advantage of the speed of light and avoiding obstruction of information, that is, circulating information on the highway.

When fiber optics reach homes, you can connect your phone, TV, and computer (or three-function device). Therefore, when talking about the phone we will be able to see the interlocutor on a monitor; we will have at our disposal dozens of television channels and the film and/or show that we want will be displayed without magnetoscope; in the data banks you can easily consult dictionaries, encyclopedias or electronic books that are desired; you can make purchases or bank relations from home by computer; etc.

The payment of these services will be similar to that currently made with gas, that is, at the entrance of the house there will be an information counter and the payment base will be the number of bits that mark the counter.

In addition to the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, more and more places in the world have taken the same path and it is fair to say that by the year 2000 our Earth will have the form of a network of spiders. I am concerned that most of what is circulating on that network can be accessed. If representative products of Basque culture do not circulate in this network, we will only use foreign products, so we can find ourselves on the threshold of cultural colonization.

For this not to happen, it is necessary to create Basque companies that offer the services mentioned above, at the same time that it must be formed in this new industry, the information industry, that people come. To this end, I believe that the administration considers the information industry an industrial sector, and that the organization of the necessary support and promotion plans is a strategic challenge.

It seems that we are in a good position to compete in a new industry that is appearing to us strongly in this turn, since we will have the physical infrastructure configured. In addition, I do not doubt that leadership in this sector would mean improving positions in other sectors.