To push ahead smart city development, the Government has been actively bolstering the Wi-Fi.HK service to provide free public Wi-Fi service with better user experience for local residents and visitors. Over 36 000 hotspots under the Wi-Fi.HK brand are now in town with an extensive coverage to locations such as the airport, tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping malls and stores, banks, youth service centres and study rooms as well as 3 000-plus buses and taxis and the Airport Express that are on the move. The Wi-Fi.HK service has been further extended to the sitting-out areas of 185 public rental housing estates and all public hospitals.

     Currently, more than 1 200 government venues are installed with Wi-Fi.HK hotspots. These include all public libraries, most museums, public markets and cooked food centres, sports, cultural and recreational venues, parks, promenades, land boundary control points and the cruise terminal. Having completed various enhancement works at government venues like upgrade of technology standard and full replacement of copper wires with fibre links, the Wi-Fi.HK service is now much faster and stable. The connection speed for hotspots under the Wi-Fi.HK brand has increased significantly to reach over 20 megabits per second (Mbps) on average, enabling smooth viewing of online videos.

     The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer has also set up high-speed access points at ten popular tourist attractions with a view to enhancing visitors' travel experience in Hong Kong. These access points with access speed of up to 100 Mbps are located at Kowloon Visitor Centre at Star Ferry Concourse in Tsim Sha Tsui, Temple Street Pai Lau in Jordan, Tai Kwun, Peak Road Garden, Hong Kong Wetland Park Visitor Centre, Repulse Bay Beach, Stanley Promenade, Golden Bauhinia Square, Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port and Ngong Ping Road Interchange.

     The Department of Management and Marketing of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University conducted user experience surveys on Wi-Fi.HK in the past two years. According to the survey completed at the end of last year, 70 per cent of the respondents have given a score of 5 or above (on a 7-point scale) on the overall satisfaction to service performance, while the mean score of connection speed has increased from 4.9 in 2018 to 5.1 in 2019. Over 87 per cent of the respondents indicated that they would continue to use Wi-Fi.HK service and more than 90 per cent would recommend the service to their friends.

     Dr Ken Wong who was in charge of the survey said that the survey results reflected the Government's good efforts in promoting the Wi-Fi.HK brand. The respondents are generally satisfied with the Wi-Fi.HK service, giving a satisfaction rating similar to those for telecommunications services in other advanced cities and regions.

     Local residents and visitors can enjoy free Wi-Fi.HK service without any registration. They may download the Wi-Fi.HK mobile app or visit Wi-Fi.HK website (www.wi-fi.hk) to search for nearby hotspots and service details.

Ends/Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Issued at HKT 14:00

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