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A Metro Wi-Fi Disaster

Metropolitan-area Wi-Fi: the next big thing or the next colossal waste of tax dollars? In Taipei, an experiment by the city government to outfit the city with wireless Internet access has been a big disappointment; just 40,000 of its 2.6 million residents have signed up to use the service, called WiFly, in the six months it has been operational. WiFly was part of Taipei's plan to position itself as a world leader in technology. It only charges $12.50 a month too, so why isn't anyone biting? As one man hunched over his laptop in a coffee shop told The New York Times, "it's very easy to find free wireless connections." This may be a shocker to some, but many--if not most--people will go out of their way to do something for free. Isn't that concept at least partially what the whole ad business is built around? "I'm here because it's free, and if it's free elsewhere, I'll go there too," the man at the coffee shop said. If no one in Taipei is taking up Metro-area Wi-Fi--and cheap Metro-area Wi-Fi at that--what does this say about Google and EarthLink's San Francisco plans? Of all the major cities in the U.S., it's easiest to find free Wi-Fi at any of San Francisco's countless granola coffee shops. Not only that, but most people already have plenty of access to the Internet through work, their homes, and their wireless BlackBerrys or mobile phones, so are they really going to change? Why should they?

Read the whole story at New York Times »

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