[photopress:wireless_networking.jpg,full,alignright]There will be much done for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010. One of the projects being the commissioning of the first citywide wireless broadband network on the Chinese mainland.
Shanghai Telecom and China Mobile’s Shanghai Branch have signed agreements with the commission to invest a total of RMB40 billion ($5 billion)to improve local IT infrastructure, including the wireless network.
The commission said in a statement published on its website: ‘Every one can access the broadband network at anytime from anywhere in the city.’ That is a big step forward. At the moment wireless connectivity is only available at the city’s two commercial airports, some star-rated hotels and restaurants and Starbucks outlets across the city.
Shanghai Telecom said the wireless services will cover the whole city.
Zheng Jianping, a spokesperson for Shanghai Telecom, said, ‘It hasn’t been decided whether to charge as we have to negotiate with the government first.’
This is a pretty important point. Typically Government-sponsored free wireless networks are on the slow side. According to the Shanghai Communications Administration there are about 1.6 million local households in the city which have subscribed to broadband services.
This new service will be cutting edge working much WiMax (worldwide inter-operability for microwave access) and 3G but it has to be profitable. Until we here the charges we will not know whether it will be an expensive/super effective network or a relatively inexpensive network that will be relatively slow and will not cover the whole of the city.
Source: Shanghai Daily