Chinese Passengers Get Wi-Fi Access on Buses
2013-05-14 Source：www.chinabuses.org
Summarize：An undated photo shows that passengers get access to the Internet by Wi-Fi on Bus 301 in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian province.
www.chinabuses.org: An undated photo shows that passengers get access to the Internet by Wi-Fi on Bus 301 in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian province.
Now, Bejing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Qingdao and Nanjing etc. cities have introduced Wi-Fi service on the buses. In addition, some areas, riders can get information about bus-lines, transfer stations and latest news by accessing local area networks.
Beijing, capital of China, has introduced Wi-Fi service on over 1,800 buses running in 60 commuter routes in the city, people's daily reports. Some bus routes like No1, No 52, No 57 and No 300 have added Wi-Fi. Beijing Public Transportation Group reached a deal with China Mobile Beijing Company to offer Wi-Fi access to bus riders by installing TDFi device.It's estimated that more than 10,000 buses in the capital would carry Wi-Fi by the end of this year.
According to FAW Bus (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., four No. 81 buses in Chengdu were equipped with WiFi signals in March 2013. All buses in Chengdu may be covered with WiFi signals after the test operation. Two No. 81 buses were equipped with wireless routers as early as in July 2012. According to Yang Jianbo, general designer of Chengdu Bus Holdings Co., Ltd., the technology is mature and free from interference to the WiFi signals. Public transportation companies in Chengdu will select a network carrier and prepare new operation plans for WiFi buses.
The keys to this initiative’s success will be two-fold. Technology will be the most critical, as consumers won’t embrace this product if they continually lose their signals or have to battle slow Internet speeds. Second will be pricing. To succeed, this product will have to be priced significantly lower than existing 3G services—perhaps as little as half the price—since traditional 3G is more reliable and can also be used for voice calls. Still, despite these technological and pricing challenges, I have to commend China Mobile this time for an interesting initiative that shows it is trying to regain some of the ground it is fast losing to rivals China Telecom and China Unicom.
China Mobile’s new wi-fi bus initaitive looks like an interesting move with a 50-50 chance of success, targeting commuters with lots of idle time for web surfing.
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