I heard about this project many years ago when the previous administration held some meetings (their i-land project) to discuss this but nothing was ever decided on or followed up. I would have been surprised if they could do anything back then because the meetings were so infrequent, something like once a year. There didn't seem to be any political willingness to get the project up and running!
Then, about two months back, I did hear some inkling of good news through the grapevine. Well, the grapevine rumours have become reality:
The Penang Free WiFi project was launched yesterday by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng as part of the overall Wireless@Penang project which is aimed at giving Penangites free wireless broadband services.
“Today, Penang takes a bold step to make the entire state connected through wireless broadband," Guan Eng announced. "It’s a journey we want to complete within the next 18 to 24 months. The service will be deployed on a ‘ripples strategy’ with simultaneous initial roll-outs in several core market centres on the island and mainland before they spread to cover the entire state.”
REDtone Telecommunications and Hotgate Technology will set up 750 wireless access points over the next one year. REDtone's Wei Chuan Beng said they would begin setting up access points in Queensbay Mall and the service should be available within the next four weeks. This would then be followed by areas in Macalister Road, Burma Road, Gurney Plaza and Gurney Drive, Bukit Jambul Complex, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Butterworth and then Tanjung Bungah. My comment: when is Bukit Mertajam coming under your radar? We have a small but convenient hill nearby for you to instal all your equipment, you know!
Next week, the state government will preview WiMAX@Penang which is the next step to provide for serious mobile Internet users. When implemented, this will probably be a paid service where subscribers will need to fork out a monthly fee.
There's also a report from Jeff Ooi that you should read.
5 comments:
Wow..when this project is done..Penang will be the most high tech state in Malaysia beside KL..
Bravo, finally!
Penang could cement its position as the Silicon valley of malaysia.
I heard about it over the radio news this morning. Yah, finally seeing some action. Go prove BN wrong! Will definitely benefit those on the move, with PDA/Laptop. I installed my own hotspot in my apartment more than a year ago. Malaysia still has a long way to go...
wow that is so cool for the penang state! i wish other states including kl & my hometown can follow suite. we can learn from penang with penang leading the way in technology! :)
folks i hate to be the harbringer of bad news but let me tell you that this service will fail miserably if not managed well. WiFi as you know is using the unlicensed spectrum. meaning there can be a huge interference issue from other equipment like cordless phone etc. we do know that melaka tried to be the first state with free internet access using wifi.today its a white elephant hardly managed by MITCH since the acceptable user experience is reallly bad. similiarly kperak launched but today its not showing the expected results. what we need to do is get the best licensed operator to provide good level of service either sponoserd advertisers or the govt>
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