http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061208/3/2u3ty.html
PluggedIn: Taipei, global cities, hum Wi-Fi tune
Saturday December 9, 5:14 AM
TAIPEI (Reuters) - As much of the world buzzes with high-speed 3G
mobile services, Taipei is humming another wireless broadband tune
with a year-old network providing low-cost Wi-Fi service throughout
the city.
The Taiwan capital hopes to become a pioneer in the field, leading a
group of major global cities in offering Wi-Fi networks as a
convenient low-cost alternative to pricey third-generation (3G)
mobile services.
Other cities across the globe studying or building similar networks
include Singapore in Asia, Philadelphia and San Francisco in North
America and Moscow in Europe.
Even Taipei's cross-strait rival Beijing is getting into the act,
looking at Wi-Fi among other technologies as it conducts a
feasibility study for a citywide high-speed wireless network.
Many believe there is demand for such networks, but the level of that
demand and how the product should be packaged are still open
questions -- something that Taiwan's network, known as Wifly, has
learned in its first year of operation.
"In the beginning we used a monthly flat fee," Chang Sheng, vice
president of the network's operator, Q-Ware Systems, told Reuters in
an interview at the company's Taipei headquarters.
"But, for the average customer our service is nice to have, but not a
must. So this is a lesson we've learned."
That lesson has led Q-Ware to test out a number of new channels to
take its network beyond offering simple high-speed Internet access as
a stand-alone product.
The company is experimenting with Wi-Fi phones, which allow
subscribers to make calls over the Internet, and portable online
games are another future possibility.
In one of its most ambitious projects, the company is also in talks
to sell a major stake in itself to one of Taiwan's top two cellular
carriers, Chunghwa Telecom and FarEasTone , which could then package
Wi-Fi with their core cellular service as a bundled product.
LOW COSTS
While Taipei's Wifly service is still very much a work in progress,
most agree that the technology's relative maturity and low cost
should help such citywide networks find a place in the future world
of high-speed wireless data services.
Taiwan's Wi-Fi network, which operates using 4,000 so-called access
points -- built around short-range transmitters placed in venues like
convenience stores and coffee shops -- has cost a mere T$1 billion (US
$31 million) to build so far.
By comparison, a 3G cellular network with the same level of coverage
would cost US$300 million to $500 million, said Nick Ingelbrecht, a
telecoms analyst at Gartner.
The main disadvantages of Wi-Fi over traditional cellular are the
relatively short range of its transmitters, and limits on its use to
when subscribers are stationary.
Subscriptions for the Taipei network, which has signed up 70,000
users since January, are relatively cheap and flexible compared with
cellular, costing just T$400 a month.
"We're at the beginning of the process rather than at the end,"
Ingelbrecht said. "These networks are going to come in and compete.
They are going to be fairly significant in some markets where they're
going to eat into the revenue of the traditional cellular operators."
Singapore has become the next city to try out the concept, as it
builds a comprehensive system of wired and wireless networks,
including a commercial wireless broadband system that launched a week
ago.
The city-state is billing the broader project, known as Next
Generation Infocomm Infrastructure or Next Gen NII, as its "new
digital super-highway for seamless connectivity," said a spokesman at
the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.
"Next Gen NII will spell greater options, including more competitive
prices for all Singaporeans," he said.
"Already, even before the new networks are rolled out, ongoing
competition in the broadband market has driven broadband prices down
by up to 40 percent. We target to have more than 90 percent of
Singapore's households as well as over 90 percent of all businesses
with more than 10 employees on broadband by 2015."
(Additional reporting by Jennifer Tan in Singapore)
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