"Free WiFi Now Available in Mountain Valleys and Campsites"

Gwangju Nam-gu Selected for Public Wi-Fi Pilot Project by the National Information Society Agency

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae) announced on the 7th that it was the only area in Gwangju selected as a project implementation region in the ‘Public Wi-Fi Platform Utilization Pilot Project’ contest hosted by the National Information Society Agency, securing 200 million KRW in national funding.

This project aims to discover operational models utilizing public Wi-Fi infrastructure and select fields with significant ripple effects that can enhance the sustainability and utilization of public Wi-Fi.

With the selection in the contest, Nam-gu will expand public Wi-Fi, which had been installed mainly in public and convenience facilities such as bus stops and Pureungil Park, to the village level, creating conditions where all village residents, including those in rural areas, can use Wi-Fi without any additional cost burden.

The public Wi-Fi platform construction will focus on four locations centered on rural villages such as Daechon area, planning to establish a public Wi-Fi network in each village by the end of November.

The village public Wi-Fi project promoted by Nam-gu is an extension of the government’s broadband convergence network (BcN). It is a village-level self-communication network-based public Wi-Fi service utilizing the idle TV channels of optical cables installed in village halls with fewer than 50 people, characterized by no separate communication fee burden.

In particular, the village public Wi-Fi uses TVWS (TV White Space), which has a wider service radius than existing Wi-Fi by utilizing temporally and spatially vacant channels in the digital TV band, allowing residents to use free Wi-Fi even on frequently visited hiking trails and campsites, greatly improving resident convenience.

Additionally, in Nam-gu, a mixed urban-rural area, it is expected to contribute to forming infrastructure for building safe villages by creating a foundation to activate open-field smart farms, and enabling the application of CCTV cameras for remote medical care, AI-based crime prevention, and wildfire monitoring due to the wide application radius.

A Nam-gu official said, “The core of this project is to provide residents with communication services without worrying about communication fees,” adding, “We will contribute to expanding communication welfare services and creating an economic base integrated with IT to help increase residents’ income.”