Free Wi-Fi to Be Available on City Buses Nationwide... Additional Installation in Elementary, Middle, and High School Classrooms

[Asia Economy Reporter Seolgina Jo] By the end of this year, free Wi-Fi will be available on virtually all city buses nationwide. Additionally, by the first half of next year, Wi-Fi will be further installed in 196,000 elementary, middle, and high school classrooms.

According to the Ministry of Science and ICT, Minister Choi Ki-young visited Sinjungbu Market in Jung-gu, Seoul on the 24th to inspect the public Wi-Fi project being promoted as part of the Korean New Deal policy. He stated, "In the era of non-face-to-face interactions due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), public Wi-Fi is an essential means for citizens to use data free of charge without worrying about communication costs."

The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to expand and install an additional 41,000 public Wi-Fi spots from this year through 2022 to enable free data usage in public places. The annual breakdown is 10,000 spots in 2020, 15,000 spots in 2021, and 16,000 spots in 2022. If the public Wi-Fi installation, which resumed in 2019, proceeds as planned, it will expand to 59,000 spots nationwide by 2022, establishing a foundation for free data usage anywhere in the country.

In particular, the city bus Wi-Fi installation project, frequently used by citizens, saw 4,200 buses in 2018, 19,800 buses in 2019, and is expected to complete 5,100 buses by October this year. Accordingly, free Wi-Fi will be available on virtually all 29,100 buses nationwide (an additional 3,444 buses managed by local governments).

Along with this, the Ministry of Science and ICT will replace 18,000 internet wireless access points (APs) at 5,848 locations nationwide with the latest Wi-Fi 6 equipment by the end of the year, starting from Sinjungbu Market.

Minister Choi, who conducted the on-site inspection, said, "To ensure that citizens can use it anytime and anywhere, we will expand public Wi-Fi to 41,000 public places from 2020 to 2022 and install Wi-Fi in 196,000 elementary, middle, and high school classrooms by the first half of next year. We will also strengthen quality management through the Public Wi-Fi Integrated Management Center."