MuniWireless

The doom and gloom associated with public Wi-Fi access apparently stops at the Pacific Ocean’s edge, right by California. Hongkong isn’t weeping into the tea leaves or canceling Wi-Fi deployments for health reasons (unlike Sebastopol, California whose super healthy residents, no doubt exposed to the sun’s completely harmless rays many days a year, forced the city council to say no to Sonic.net’s plan to build a large Wi-Fi network).

Hongkong has created a program called GovWiFi, which gives free access to wireless Internet at over thirty government buildings. Bt the middle of 2009, they will have installed 2,000 hotspots to cover about 350 locations that include libraries, government offices, job centers, public inquiry centers, sports, cultural and recreation centers, community centers and parks.

Hongkong is achieving two things at once: digital inclusion (free access for those who can’t afford connections at home) and PR as a “leading city of the world” (if they had jazzed it up some more they might have called it “creative class city of the world”).

What I like about the plan is that it is visitor friendly. If I go to Hongkong, I know I can easily find a place to log on for free and get my email if I’m in a hurry. I hate having to pay for Wi-Fi access each time I need only ten minutes to log on.

According to Frederick Ma, Hongkong’s secretary for commerce and economic development, “the provision of public Wi-Fi services is booming, with over 1,000 hotspots installed in just the first two months of 2008.” (via Xinhua News)