Visitors to Jeju Island this past summer have been setting the blogosphere alight with high praise for the high speed Wi-Fi freely available on buses. (Image: Yonhap)
JEJU, Sept. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — Visitors to Jeju Island this past summer have been setting the blogosphere alight with high praise for the high speed Wi-Fi freely available on buses.
The internet access service was first rolled out in June. The measure was the first top down restructuring of public transportation systems on the island in 30 years.
On June 20, three days after the launch of the service, only 0.01TB of data had been used. Within 10 days, data use had surged to 0.07TB. By July 27, ten times more data had been used, measured at 0.71TB. By August 24, data use had passed 1TB.
Until August 26, the Wi-Fi service was restricted to 520 buses while the restructuring process was underway. Since then, an additional 289 buses have had the technology installed, and average daily data use has shot up to 1.06 TB as of August 30.
The end of the summer vacation period and the resulting increase in daily commuters taking the bus is likely behind the increase in Wi-Fi use.
Riders can connect to Wi-Fi networks by selecting “Jeju Free Wi-Fi” on their phones and providing their nationality, gender, age and purpose of visit. The possible options for purpose of visit are residence, tourism, work, and other.
After establishing a Wi-Fi connection, riders can continue to access free Wi-Fi in public areas near the beach or parks where public Wi-Fi is available.
Jeju intends to use the information from the Wi-Fi service to craft policies that will ensure greater convenience for future visitors.
Local authorities are not satisfied with providing free internet merely on buses, however. According to an official from the Internet and Communications Department of Jeju’s provincial government, the city will “expand the boundaries of public Wi-Fi zones until all residents and tourists have access to wireless internet in every area.”
Riders can connect to Wi-Fi networks by selecting “Jeju Free Wi-Fi” on their phones and providing their nationality, gender, age and purpose of visit. (Image: Yonhap)
Lina Jang (linajang@koreabizwire.com)
