中央社
紐約時報報導，台北市無線寬頻網路已可達到全市百分之九十的覆蓋率，但是全市兩百六十萬人口願意付費使用的只有四萬人，因為像辦公室及咖啡屋都可以免費無線上網。付費無線寬頻網路的經營並不容易。
紐約時報科技記者貝爾森 (Ken Belson)不久前訪問台北市，了解都會區無線寬頻網路的建置及應用。他指出，台北市政府與廠商安源公司合作建置的無線網路，讓市民在全市有四千一百個接入點可以上網，而使用者每個月只需繳十二點五美元的月費給經營管理的安源公司。
自從今年元月起開始就設施及服務收費的安源公司發現，繳交月費使用者遠不及安源公司設定的二十五萬個帳號的目標。所以僅靠收費使用的經營模式，可能很難讓投資興建及經營的公司收回成本。
報導指出，像這樣普及而價格又合理的無線寬頻網路，卻只能吸引到這麼少的付費用戶，可能會讓在芝加哥、費城及其他美國大城市有心推廣都會無線寬頻網路的人士多做考慮。目前業者考慮到的經營模式也包括靠廣告收入。
報導指出，在美國、歐洲及部份亞洲地區，許多像安源一樣的業者都有興趣投入都會無線寬頻網路的興建及經營。不過，在經營模式方面，業者與當地政府之間仍有歧見。加州的科技顧問Craig J. Settles就指出，無線網路公共接入點的使用還有些問題，而如何讓人們願意付費使用，就是一直未被真正討論的問題。
他指出，安源公司與台北市政府的關係倒沒有引起多大的爭議，因為這項合作計畫只是台北市發展無線寬頻計畫的一部份。
布朗大學的公共政策教授Darrell M. West指出，僅有設施是不夠的，要吸引人們使用這項科技，也需提供他們內容。
報導指出，安源提供的服務就包含了讓付費使用者可以用隨身攜帶的電子遊戲機Sony PSP上網聯結玩電動遊戲、下載歌曲及其他資料。此外，它也透過系統提供價格低廉的電話服務。為了收支平衡，安源必須積極爭取客戶。
TAIPEI, Taiwan — Peter Shyu, an engineer, spends most of his day out of the office, and when he needs an Internet connection he often pops into one of the many coffee shops in this city that offer free wireless access.
He could use WiFly, the extensive wireless network commissioned by the city government that is the cornerstone of Taipei's ambitious plan to turn itself into an international technology hub. But that would cost him $12.50 a month.
"I'm here because it's free, and if it's free elsewhere, I'll go there too," said Mr. Shyu, hunched over his I.B.M. laptop in an outlet of the Doutor coffee chain. "It's very easy to find free wireless connections."
Despite WiFly's ubiquity — with 4,100 hot spot access points reaching 90 percent of the population — just 40,000 of Taipei's 2.6 million residents have agreed to pay for the service since January. Q-Ware, the local Internet provider that built and runs the network, once expected to have 250,000 subscribers by the end of the year, but it has lowered that target to 200,000.
That such a vast and reasonably priced wireless network has attracted so few users in an otherwise tech-hungry metropolis should give pause to civic leaders in Chicago, Philadelphia and dozens of other American cities that are building wireless networks of their own.
Like Taipei, these cities hope to use their new networks to help less affluent people get online and to make their cities more business-friendly. Yet as Taipei has found out, just building a citywide network does not guarantee that people will use it. Most people already have plenty of access to the Internet in their offices and at home, while wireless data services let them get online anywhere using phones, laptops and P.D.A.'s.
Like Q-Ware, operators in the United States, Europe and other parts of Asia are eager to build municipal networks. But they are grappling with the high expectations politicians are placing on them. On June 9, MobilePro backed out of plans to develop a wireless network in Sacramento because it said the city wanted it to offer free access and recoup its investment with advertising, not subscriptions, a model that other cities are hoping to adopt. Elsewhere, incumbent carriers have challenged cities' rights to requisition new networks. And many services have had difficulty attracting customers.
"There is a lot of hype about public access," said Craig J. Settles, a technology consultant in Oakland, Calif., and author of "Fighting the Good Fight for Municipal Wireless." "What's missing from a lot of these discussions is what people are willing to pay for."
Q-Ware's relationship with Taipei has been less contentious, partly because the WiFly network is just one piece of a far broader and highly regarded plan to incorporate the Internet into everything the government does.
The brainchild of Taipei's mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, the CyberCity project was first conceived in 1998 as a way to catapult past Seoul, Hong Kong and other Asian capitals that were recasting themselves as cities of the future. Many government agencies now communicate almost exclusively online, saving millions of dollars, and citizens have been given hundreds of thousands of free e-mail accounts and computer lessons.
WiFly plays a role, too, by allowing policemen to submit traffic tickets wirelessly, for instance. But making it appeal to the average citizen is another story. Q-Ware, which is part of a conglomerate that, among other things, operates 7-Eleven franchises in Taiwan, has found that consumers will pay subscription fees only if there are original offerings to pull them in.
"Content is really key," said Darrell M. West, a professor of public policy at Brown University who conducted a survey of how well governments use the Internet. "It's not enough just to have the infrastructure. You have to give people a reason to use the technology."
To that end, Q-Ware has developed P-Walker, a service that will let subscribers with Sony PSP portable game machines log on to WiFly to play online games and download songs and other material.
The company has also developed a low-priced Internet phone service. The handsets cost about $200 and allow users to call other mobile phones for just over a penny a minute; calling a traditional phone costs less than half a penny.
Ultimately, Q-Ware expects its network to communicate with more devices, including MP3 players and digital cameras.
"In the beginning, you have to do something to attract people to the service," said Sheng Chang, vice president of Q-Ware's wireless business group. "We're a wireless city, so if we can't make it here, it can't be made."
Mr. Chang added that Q-Ware lowered its target for attracting subscribers after several new product introductions were delayed, including the Internet phone service that he now expects to offer starting as early as August.
Q-Ware began building the network in 2003, working with Nortel Networks to install enough hot spots to reach nearly everyone living in this densely packed city.
Like municipal governments in many American cities, Taipei gave Q-Ware access to streetlight poles and other public property to install antennas and cables. Q-Ware has spent about $30 million putting together the network, which also reaches every subway station, hospital and public building. Streetlights did not have the electrical outlets needed to power the antennas, so outdoor hot spots cost about three times more than the indoor access points.
Initially, Q-Ware gave away subscriptions and about 60,000 people signed up. But once Q-Ware started charging for its service in January, only a few thousand subscribers remained.
"The problem is not the technology, but the business model," Mayor Ma said in an interview. "If they charge too much, people won't sign up. But Q-Ware needs to recoup their investment."
With so many options for getting online indoors, WiFly's main selling points are that its hot spots are in hard-to-reach spots like subway stations, and they link to unique services. But Amos Tsai, an office worker making his way through City Hall Station, said he rarely used his laptop or P.D.A. on trains and or in stations because they were too crowded — and because he also didn't want to pay. "Now that they started charging for WiFly, I stopped using it," he said.
For now, Q-Ware's most pressing problem is how to get people like Mr. Tsai to buy subscriptions. Q-Ware has been advertising its service on the radio, in computer magazines and on the Web, including Yahoo's local site. The company will also take out ads in newspapers and on television, and it has designed an interactive "survival" game called WiFly Hunter that offers cash rewards. It is teaming up with broadband providers so customers can get a D.S.L. line at home and WiFly access at a discount.
But even if Q-Ware meets its target this year, the company will need 500,000 users in a given month to break even, a target it is not expected to hit for several more years, according to Chou Yun-tsai, the chairwoman of Taipei's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, which oversees the WiFly project.
"It's a huge task," Ms. Chou said.
By KEN BELSON
Published: June 26, 2006
Taipei's WiFly network may be the most visible evidence of Taiwan's technological aspirations, but behind the scenes the government has been working since the 1990's on a far-reaching plan to use the Internet to make it faster and cheaper for bureaucrats to communicate among themselves and with citizens.
The rewards have been substantial. In 2005, 92 percent of businesses and 35 percent of individuals filed their taxes electronically, reducing paperwork and speeding up the payment of returns.
The island's government distributes about 100,000 documents online every working day, saving about $3 million in postage. Before, when the prime minister's office issued executive orders, it typically took up to a week to distribute them across the island. Now it takes about an hour.
By pooling the telecommunications services of all the ministries, the government saves about $70 million annually.
The government also accepts 15,000 online bids each month from companies seeking public contracts. Thousands of students and parents pay school tuition on the Internet, and citizens apply for drivers' licenses, property titles and a host of other certificates online.
To speed up delivery of these services, about one million citizens now have identification cards with chips inside that, when scanned, instantly provide personal data.
The cards, which cost about $8.50, have ID and PIN numbers for protection.
Hsieh Chang-yao, a manager at a clothing company, got his card at the local government office in the Xinyi district of Taipei so that, among other things, he could go online to get a household certificate, an important form of identification, instead of returning to his hometown outside Taipei.
"Since people in modern society are busy and not as flexible, we have to be able to communicate more online," he said.
The government's efforts have attracted notice. The Brown University Taubman Center for Public Policy put Taiwan at the top of its list of the world's most Internet-savvy governments.
Taiwan's goal has not just been to reduce paperwork and speed up services. It has used the Internet to tear down walls between ministries and increase transparency after years of authoritarian rule.
"The Internet is not just to get rid of regulations, but also to establish a mature democracy," said Yeh Jiunn-rong, the former minister of the Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, which reviews the effectiveness of government projects and policies. "While we were doing government reform, it was a golden opportunity to do it right with e-government."
像辦公室及咖啡屋都可以免費無線上網
為什麼辦公室和咖啡屋可以免費上網？是因為辦公室或咖啡店自行申請無線上網的服務再提供給客人免費使用嗎？這樣會很貴嗎？
ckmarkhsu
2006-06-27, 01:02 AM
為什麼辦公室和咖啡屋可以免費上網？是因為辦公室或咖啡店自行申請無線上網的服務再提供給客人免費使用嗎？這樣會很貴嗎？...
不用阿，花錢拉一條 ADSL，買個無線發射器就好了
很便宜的:)
不用阿，花錢拉一條 ADSL，買個無線發射器就好了
很便宜的:)
可是登入該adsl的isp不是要帳號密碼嗎？還是無線發射器端是開放的？
922.CC
2006-06-27, 09:06 AM
可是登入該adsl的isp不是要帳號密碼嗎？還是無線發射器端是開放的？
係使用無線ip分享器，WAN端接ADSL，分享器支援PPPOE，所以就可登入了，無線部份就給一般有無線網卡的電腦，使用自動取得IP就可以上網了，距離100、200公尺都沒問題
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