Seoul to provide free Wi-Fi at 'every street corner' by 2015
updated 12:15 pm EDT, Wed June 15, 2011
City invests $44 Million to improve Wi-Fi coverage
Seoul, South Korea established plans this week to blanket the city with free outdoor wireless Internet access. The intent is to provide residents and visitors Wi-Fi access at 10,430 parks, streets, and other areas by 2015. Cost for the project is estimated to be $44 million.
Demand for Wi-Fi in Seoul is growing, but the demand has far exceeded the availability of service. The city is committed to eliminating the gap. "Wi-Fi service is unavailable at 83 percent of outdoor areas in Seoul," said one city official, "but it soon will be available at every street corner of the city."
The City has already taken steps to provide improved coverage. In addition to these fixed outdoor locations, by the end of this year, all buses, subway trains and taxis in the city will be equipped to offer wireless Internet service.
Public Wi-Fi has been considered important not just for getting devices online that don't have built-in 3G or 4G but for offsetting the load on cellular networks from the rapidly increasing number of smartphones. American carriers like AT&T and Verizon have been readying much more public Wi-Fi to head off problems at concerts, sports arenas and other heavily populated events where 3G and 4G can bog down.
