Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Early this week, the Taipei City Government has announced the completion of the first stage of the "M-City" (mobile city) project, which allows residents to access the Internet in and around 30 mass rapid transit (MRT) stations through wireless connections.
Taipei city Mayor Ma Ying Jeou said: "Taipei will be the world's first and largest mobile city, where users can access the Internet wherever they go, when the project is completed next year." From now, those with a notebook PC can get access to Wi-Fi at 30 MRT stations and areas within 150 meters of the stations. So far, 10,000 people have signed on to the cyber city project, dubbed as "Wifly," and the city hopes the number will reach 200,000 by the end of the year, Ma said.
In addition to a 6,000m2 area in the Xinyi district where the government tested the system, Wireless Internet access is now available in 12 stations on the Bannan Line, 13 stations on the Danshui Line, five stations on the Muzha Line and areas within 150m of theses stations. The inauguration held this Tuesday, which was attended by distinguish guests including Rosemary Ho, chairwoman of HP Taiwan; Kuo Chun-nan, president of Qware Systems Inc.; Lin Tsang-sheng, president of Uni-President; and Chan Hung-chih, chairman of the PChome Group. The project began in September last year after Qware won the bid for setting up all the access point devices.
Users can enjoy Wifly for free during the service's promotional period from now to April. Taipei's cyber city project is one of the largest in the world in terms of areas of coverage and the capital spent. Yet Wifly does not seem to have built a large customer base as statistics compiled by the city suggests since Wifly began its trial run in December, an average of 250 people use the service daily, and each user spends 48 minutes. The service will be free until the end of April. After that, the company plans to charge users NT$399 per month for unlimited access, but the rates first have to be approved by the Taipei City Government, Kuo said.
By: DocMemory
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