Hong Kong to Build free WiFi network: Building 1,000 WiFi hotspots
From Daily Wireless: Hong Kong: Chinese Broadband Wireless - Hong Kong marked 10 years since the end of British rule yesterday with parades and protests that “vividly illustrated its role as China’s beacon of political diversity”. Many in Hong Kong believe the next 10 years will be full of tough challenges for the 7 million people living in this global business center on China's muggy southern coast. They fear Singapore and Shanghai will seize a bigger chunk of the city's key businesses, such as shipping and financial services.
The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government has a plan. They want to develop a "knowledge-based" economy, and announced plans to invest some HK$210 million (US$27 million) to build a free Hong Kong-wide WiFi network, explains Tech News.
The government plans to invest HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) in various high-density residential areas of Hong Kong this year to develop more than 1,000 WiFi hotspots, offering wireless broadband connectivity as a community service to the public, said Wai Kay “Ricky” Wong, chairman and cofounder of City Telecom (HK). WiMax at 2.5 GHz is foreseen to be a key enabler in the future. The Hong Kong government will assign broadband spectrum using a market-based approach, based on auction, planned to be conducted in 2008.
