KT is going to execute its promise of ‘opening 100,000 public Wi-Fi’, which is going to be the biggest number of public Wi-Fi ever. As KT, which currently has half of entire Wi-Fi in South Korea, decides to open public Wi-Fi, South Korea has taken one more step towards being ‘Wi-Fi free South Korea’.
KT announced on the 8th that it will be opening 100,000 Wi-Fi APs (Access Point) that are installed in South Korea by end of this week. This is more than half of 189,000 APs that are currently operated by KT and it corresponds to entire APs excluding overlapping areas and old APs.
Members of SK Telecom and LG Uplus can also use KT’s Wi-FI. Name (Service Set Identification) of KT’s free Wi-Fi is going to be ‘KT_Free_WiFi’. Without any logins, one can use KT’s Wi-Fi by entering simple information such as age and name and going through a confirmation process.
KT has consistently investing into Wi-Fi and has the widest coverage out of three South Korean mobile network providers. Quality of its Wi-Fi is excellent as about 80,000 APs out of entire APs are GiGA Wi-Fi. About 70% of Wi-Fi that is going to be opened this week is GiGA Wi-Fi. It is expected that users will be able to notice better quality from qualitative and quantitative perspectives.
KT explained that it will be opening Wi-Fi mainly at areas such as libraries, museums, tourist spots, subways, sports facilities, and cultural facilities that need public Wi-Fi. Its intention is to help people to reduce their telecommunication fee by allowing them to use Wi-Fi for free at wide places.
“We have decided to open our Wi-Fi so that we can satisfy South Korean Government’s policy that is trying to reduce consumer’s telecommunication fee and that customers can enjoy data without any financial burden.” said a representative for KT. “Although we expect amount of Wi-Fi use to increase rapidly, we are going to continuously examine old equipment and replace old equipment so that quality of our Wi-Fi does not get reduced.
Previously KT was against opening its Wi-Fi and used quality and competitive edge of its W-Fi as a differentiated marketing method. However KT announced that it would be opening its Wi-Fi after learning that SK Telecom was going open its Wi-Fi and hearing requests from societies.
KT made a such decision in order to fulfill its responsibilities as a ‘national business’ and to contribute to South Korean Government’s policy on reducing telecommunication fee through establishment and expansion of public Wi-Fi.
As KT has decided to open its Wi-Fi, number of public Wi-Fi increased to 257,472. It is likely that this will bring convenience to users and reduce telecommunication fee.
Currently 396,472 Wi-Fi are operated by three South Korean mobile network providers. They are planning to continuously open their Wi-Fi that has not been opened yet.
Staff Reporter An, Hocheon | hcan@etnews.com
