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Central Government, Connected Government, Digital Inclusion

Taiwan launches free WiFi at central govt premises

By Jianggan Li | 29 September 2011

From 9am on 7 October onwards, Taiwan citizens will be able to access WiFi network at more than 2520 hotspots installed at central government facilities across the country. The hotspots include tourism spots, transportation hubs, educational institutions, public hospitals and government offices.

The initiative was implemented by Research, Development and Evaluation Commission of the Executive Yuan, the government’s executive branch.

Any citizen who has a mobile number will be able to surf the 512K bandwidth internet for free at all government premises where an “iTaiwan” poster is displayed. In addition, those who already have Taipei City’s free WiFi accounts can access iTaiwan hotspots using the same credentials.

RDEC says that although similar services have been provided in other countries, such as Singapore and Panama, Taiwan’s services are more balanced and pervasive, covering remote villages and outlying islands.

“In the era of digital communications, internet access has become a digital right for the citizens, just like environmental rights and social rights,” says Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou at the launching ceremony. “All the citizens should have the right of accessing digital services, otherwise they will feel discriminated against.”

During his previous tenure as Mayor of Taipei, Ma pushed forward the Mobile City programme, installing WiFi hotspots across the city.

The initiative is part of the government efforts to achieve the vision of “service beyond boundary, quality above the living standard”, specified in the country’s Fourth Stage E-government Programme, developed by RDEC.

Details of the Fourth Stage E-government Programme could be found on pages 10 – 13, June 2011 issue of FutureGov magazine, where an exclusive interview with Sung Yu-Hsieh, RDEC’s Deputy Minister, was featured.

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