Residents of Beijing will have citywide Wi-Fi service by 2010, if everything goes as planned. CECT-Chinacomm Communications has finished the first phase which covers 100 square kilometers. They will free Wi-Fi service during the Olympics. I do not know how good the service is because I have not gone to Beijing to test it and I don’t know anyone who has done so. This is one challenging project. Beijing covers a vast area - 16,800 square kilometers - and has 17 million people. This project makes the Philadelphia Wi-Fi network seem like a tiny hotzone.

Tags: Beijing