Updated Info on Free Taipei WiFi - Major Public Places in July, More in Oct

[mabagal]

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/ ... 2003505431

[Jaboney]

Excellent news.

[cranky laowai]

Here's the registration site. The English version doesn't appear to work yet.

[achangey]

Hello, this is awesome. I will finally be able to use my ipad 2 anywhere! But...

I don't have a cell phone (new in taiwan); the registration requires a cell phone number. Is this mandatory in order to use the soon-to-come free taipei wifi?

[TheLostSwede]

So get a pre-paid SIM card then

[cfimages]

So do you have to be a resident of Taipei city to use it, or did they mean free wifi is only is Taipei city but people from anywhere can register? The TT article is a little unclear.

[MoTi]

If it turns out, that this will only affect Taipei residents, I really wonder how they justify this ?
Taipei residents already get a newly born children child support, which other areas of Taiwan only can dream about ...

Seems like the goverment / local goverment trying their best to keep promoting, that Taipei people are better / deserve better
than the rest of Taiwan ...

Yeah, I agree, life costs are much higher there, but so does the wages too. And I don't think Taipei residents pay any extra
taxes to justify these goodies ...

[mabagal]

It's a public WiFi and the registration is either by mobile phone number or passport for tourists, as stated in the article. One can surmise from this that it will be available to anyone regardless of residence as long as they register in either of these ways.

I would not get my hopes up that this is at all any sort of substitute for cellular data. That said, it will be a great compliment to or a gap filler for places like basements and other places where cellular signals are not available.

It will also usher in an era where many more people can enjoy the benefits of always-connected pocket computing that smartphone users already enjoy. Specifically speaking, the relatively inexpensive iPod Touch becomes much more useful in Taipei even with a half decent free WiFi available.

[Jaboney]

I've got the 3G iPad2, but haven't yet bothered getting a SIM card for it. The Personal Hotspot feature on my iPhone works well enough, except during rush hour when everyone's online via 3G. If this gets me email and flipboard during peak times, I'll be happy enough.

[mabagal]

I'm also doing the same thing with 3G iPad2 - no SIM. The hotspot on the phone works well and is pretty quick to get set up.

My girlfriend went back to the States a few days ago for a bit and left me her SIM card, so it went into the iPad. It's very marginally more convenient but really only on quick hops in transit where you're only sitting in the MRT/bus/taxi for literally a few minutes. If it's any length more than a few minutes, setting up the hotspot on the phone is not a problem.