SURFING the Internet at broadband speed - for free - will become reality next year when the island becomes a giant wireless zone. All anyone needs is a laptop or mobile device to get online in public areas such as HDB town centres. The "special offer" will last at least two years inder this initiative, called Wireless@SG. The number wireless hot spots will jump five times - from 900 to 5000, as Singapore makes a push for its people to be part of the digital age. Stressing that no one will be left behind, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday announced plans to give the elderly and the disabled besic tools to navigate the Internet.

About 10,000 needy households with school-going children will also qualify for new computers, which will come subsidised and bundled with broadband.

Mr Lee said: "We must create digital opportunities for all Singaporeans, and never allow a digital divide in our society." He chose to unveil these plans at a dinner to mark 25 years of infocommmunications in Singapore.

What grabbed the attendtion of the 1,000 or so industry leaders at the Singapore Expo event last night was the competitionheating up in the broadband market. By offering at least two years of free access, telecom operators Singtel, iCell and QMax beat six others to the chunk of state money offered to subsidise the initiative.

The Goverment is committing $30 million of the expected $100 million for the wireless networks which will cover the Central Business District, Orchard Road and HDB town centres, for a start.

With broadband on the go, notebook or PDA users do not have to be cooped up at work or at home to go online. Details will be announced in December, but user can expect to access all three networks by signing up with any of the three operators.

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>> Free wireless Internet access at "high-traffic" public areas like HDB town centres for everyone fot at least two years.

>> Under-$300 Pcs plus free broadband at home for needy families with school going chilren.

>> 300 top talents in computer games to head to the MAssachusetts Institute of Technology for training.

(You can get PM LEE's SPEECH IS AVAILABLE AT www.straitstimes.com.sg)

A PROFITLESS website stared in a garage only 20 months ago by three 20-somethings sells for more than US$1 billion, instantly turning its founders into papers millionaires hundresa of times over. It sounds like a tale form the late 1990s dot.com bubble, but it happened on Monday.

Google, the Web search giant, is paying US$1.65 billion (S$2.6 billion) in stock for YouTube, the video-sharing website phenomenon.

YouTube was founded in February last year, one of the dozens of Internet video start-ups. It exploded in popularity last November by letting users share short clips of home videos and programming copied from television. About 30 million visitors visit the website monthly, viewing hundreds of millions of streaming video clips. The site caught on so fast because it is designed so that people can post almost anything they like on it in minutes.

Now, YouTube ranks behind only a handful of other so-called Web 2.0 sites - the new generation of websites that reply on user-generated publishing for much of their content. Social networking sites MySpace and Facebook rank first and second, followed by online encyclopedia Wikipedia, then YouTube.

Google closed the deal after only a week of intense negotiations with YouTube's founders Chad Hurley, 29, and Steven Chen, 28, who formed the company after they grew fustrated by not being able to share by e-mail a video taken at a dinner party with friends.

YouTube's founders had preferred to remain independent, with an eye towards an initial public offering. But what with the copyright issues and the high costs of bandwidth, they chose to go Google.

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