The New York Times’ Ken Belson has this piece today on an ambitious city-backed Wi-Fi project in Taipei, Taiwan. The government there has commissioned an extensive Wi-Fi network called WiFly that has 4,100 hot spots reaching 90% of the population.
But, in perhaps a cautionary tale for U.S. cities in the midst of their own municipal wireless projects, few citizens use the subscription service offered by WiFly. Just 40,000, or 2%, of the city’s 2.6 million residents, purchase the $12.95/month WiFly service; officials say that the network needs 500,000 subscribers to break-even.
Part of the problem in Taipei, and no doubt an issue that U.S. cities following the same model will experience, is that so many people have access to free Wi-Fi alternatives.
Yet as Taipei has found out, just building a citywide network does not guarantee that people will use it. Most people already have plenty of access to the Internet in their offices and at home, while wireless data services let them get online anywhere using phones, laptops and P.D.A.’s.
WiFly is trying to up the value proposition of its network by offering VoIP service, online game access and music downloads. But that’s a lot of work — in essence WiFly has to behave like a traditional communications company. Still, the network also offers a lot of intangible benefits to the city, providing law enforcement communications and other municipal needs.
Cynthia Brumfield at 8:53 AM|Comments(0)
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