With lower rates and a service that covers 90 percent of Taipei's population, Wifly -- the wireless service launched by Taipei City Government -- yesterday announced that the whole city is now wireless.
In addition to MRT stations, Starbucks coffee shops, municipal hospitals and libraries, the public can also now enjoy Wifly in more than 600 7-Eleven convenience stores around the city, according to Jason Lin (林蒼生), president of the Q-ware Systems and Services Corp, the contractor of the Wifly project.
Calling Taipei County Commissioner Chou Hsi-wei (周錫瑋) using Wifly's Internet phone feature, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) encouraged Taipei residents to "frequent the Net, and free up the road."
"This city-wide wireless project is the first in the world, and required a lot of courage, but we did it," Ma said during a press conference held at a 7-Eleven.
extended coverage
According to 7-Eleven, plans are in the offing to extend coverage of Wifly service to all of its 4,000 stores nationwide by the end of this year.
The wireless initiative began with free trials in September 2004 and is part of the government's "M-City" (mobile city) project, which aims to turn Taipei into a wireless city. Total investment in the project now stands at more than NT$1 billion (US$30.6 million).
Despite its high coverage rate, only 50,000 of Taipei's 2.6 million residents have signed up to the service since January.
"I've never used the service ? I think it's convenient, but I did not use it before," Wen Chun-wei (溫純葳), a college student who attended the press conference to get a free Wifly card, told the Taipei Times.
To attract more users, Wifly is introducing lower price rates, such as a seven-day card for NT$200 and a 110-minute card for NT$99.
dual-mode handset
Meanwhile, to boost its user base, Q-ware Systems and Services Corp will introduce a dual-mode handset by the fourth quarter.
The company is currently in talks with the US' UT Starcom Inc, Taiwan's Wistron NeWeb Corp and Ambit Microsystems Inc, and will select one supplier for its first dual-mode phone soon, according to Chang Sheng (張聖), vice president of the company's wireless business group.
"Voice service is the main attraction to users on Wifly, as they all want to enjoy cheaper rates," he said.
Dual-mode phones can work on both the ordinary second-generation (2G) and Wi-Fi, or wireless, networks. Users can switch to the Wi-Fi mode when they are covered by the Internet.
The company, which has pumped more than NT$1 billion into Wifly, hopes to break even by the end of next year, Chang said.
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