Taipei City will begin offering free wireless Internet services by this April at the earliest and July at the very latest, Mayor Hau Lung-bin said Jan. 31.
“The coverage rate will be 93 percent when services are launched,” he added.
The service will not be limited to Taipei City residents, as domestic and foreign visitors will also be able to get online using a notebook computer, personal digital assistant or smartphone, officials at the city’s Department of Information Technology said.
The scope of the service this year will cover major public locations such as Taipei City Hall's main building and 12 district administrative offices, the various branches of the Taipei Public Library and of Taipei City Hospital, as well as the MRT's Taipei Main Station and underground mall, officials said.
Outdoor locations, they added, will include main thoroughfares as well as major business and residential districts, with the services to be offered via hotspots in the city.
According to the department, Wi-Fi technology standards adopted for the service will feature a bandwidth speed of 512 kilobytes per second, allowing users to easily check their email or surf for information while out and about.
However, multimedia services will not be offered initially under the NT$70 million (US$2.39 million) plan due to optimization considerations, the department said.
