Taipei's city-wide Wi-Fi passes test
A number of cities around the world have boasted of plans to roll out Wi-Fi networks to make life easier for their citizens. But Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, is the first city to actually do it, according to Wi-Fi hot spot directory JiWire, which flew a crew in to test the system.
"Taipei is the world's largest," JiWire CEO Kevin McKenzie said Tuesday. He said members of his team traveled around the city testing out the network, making sure services such as e-mail, security and basic Internet service worked fine. They gave it a passing grade.
Taipei's wi-fi network currently boasts over 4,000 hot spots, covering around 90% of the 2.6 million people in the city.
There are two companies offering access to the city-wide wi-fi network, Q-ware Systems, which charges NT$399 ($12.20) per month for the service, and the state-run Chunghwa Telecom. A host of other companies also offer wi-fi throughout the city in cafes, coffee & tea shops, and other locations.
JiWire said most users should find the system in fine working order. Taipei is wired for 802.11b wireless LAN, an older but widely adopted technology.
"There are a number of cities - Mountain View; San Jose; Tempe, Ariz. - making a lot of noise about wi-fi, but [Taipei] has really done it," said Kevin O'Reilly, director of business development at JiWire.
The mayors and IT managers for a number of cities around the world are in Taipei this week to share intelligence on building such networks, including representatives from Waterloo, Canada; Gold Coast, Australia; Glasgow, Scotland; Jigawa State in Nigeria, and elsewhere.
The point of Taipei's wi-fi network was to reduce traffic on city roads, according to Mayor Ma Ying-jeou. The idea was to ensure citizens could access all government data, application forms and other work over the Internet, turning Taipei into a true digital city and reducing the need to drive to government offices. Taipei also hosts Taiwan's national government offices, meaning citizens often use cars or scooters to take care national government paper work as well.
Reproduced from an article published by Network World
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