China lags in hot spots

Intel signed agreements with the Dalian and Chengdu municipal governments to install new broadband wireless services, a sign that WiFi activity may be picking up. An International Herald Tribune story said Beijing's year-old dispute with Intel and others over wireless standards was partly to blame for China's slow deployment of WiFi hotspots, which enable wireless computing. China has only slightly more than 2,000 hotspots. South Korea expects to have 26,000 by year end. Asia-Pacific has 53% of the world's hotspots. Laptop users still form only a relatively small proportion of China's internet-enabled population, so there has been less pressure to deploy WiFi.