Residents across South Korea will be able to take advantage of nationwide Wi-Fi coverage after the government confirmed it will roll out free Wi-Fi across the country, reports telecomtv.com.
The country’s Ministry of Science, IT and Future Planning is aiming to add 10,000 more free Wi-Fi public access points across the country to add to the 2,000 existing outlets.
In order to fund such a scheme, the government has secured a deal with the country’s three network operators. This way, the financial burden lays on the carriers while consumers across all regions of South Korea benefit from Wi-Fi access.
This also goes a long way to solving the issue of having over half the country’s Wi-Fi hotspots located in Seoul, claims the report.
According to totaltele.com, the scheme will see health centres, community centres and welfare institutes taking advantage of such hotspots while 1,020 remote areas of South Korea will also be covered.
Overall, the Ministry’s goal is to establish 12,000 free internet access spots by 2017 and to ‘horizontalise’ the public Wi-Fi market in South Korea.
Park Yoon-hyun, a ministry official, commented on the Wi-Fi rollout: “Expansion of Wi-Fi areas will ease financial burdens on consumers and help narrow the information gap between people in Seoul and other cities.”
