Taiwan's WiFly doesn't fly (and fruity Sony spoof)

Ahem, sorry to disturb you, but it's IT Blogwatch, in which the city of Taipei discovers few willing to pay for WiFi. Not to mention a fruity spoof of Sony's bouncing balls TV spot...

The NYT's Ken Belson finds that "free" is a powerful word in Taiwan's capital: "Peter Shyu, an engineer, spends most of his day out of the office, and when he needs an Internet connection he often pops into one of the many coffee shops in this city that offer free wireless access. He could use WiFly, the extensive wireless network commissioned by the city government that is the cornerstone of Taipei's ambitious plan to turn itself into an international technology hub. But that would cost him $12.50 a month ... That such a vast and reasonably priced wireless network has attracted so few users in an otherwise tech-hungry metropolis should give pause to civic leaders in Chicago, Philadelphia and dozens of other American cities that are building wireless networks of their own ... Q-Ware began building the network in 2003, working with Nortel Networks to install enough hot spots to reach nearly everyone living in this densely packed city ... once Q-Ware started charging for its service in January, only a few thousand subscribers remained."

» Doug Isenberg runs the numbers: "an extensive wireless network commissioned by the city government in Taipei, Taiwan -- with 4,100 hot spot access points reaching 90 percent of the population -- just 40,000 of Taipei's 2.6 million residents have agreed to pay for the service since January." [that's 1.7% of reach]

» Techdirt's Mike calls WiFly "Gimmicky": "In the mad dash to build out WiFi networks as a broadband network, there are an awful lot of questions that have remained unanswered. There's the question of whether or not the technology is really right for the job. There's the question of whether or not the incumbents will actually let the networks exist. However, perhaps the biggest question (and one discussed the least) is whether or not anyone actually will use these networks? Last year we got worried that too many cities were rushing to offer muni-WiFi just because everyone else was, and not because of any evidence of need. This may be playing itself out in Taiwan, where a well hyped WiFi network apparently isn't getting very much usage at all. It seems that people just don't see the value."

» British VC Stu Phillips muses, "What if you built it and nobody came? ... an interesting read following on the heels of my article last week about ad-supported WiFi networks and raises a question; at what point do you have enough Internet connectivity that you reach a saturation point and 'free' becomes the only model that attracts users? ... I suspect we're getting close in many countries to that saturation point.  The saturation point is where simple connectivity for a fee isn't compelling enough to attract users; as a prior example, think about the declining use of dial-up that gave way to users paying more for broadband where the experience was more compelling. As metro-areas are built out with WiFi or some other technology there will have to be a bigger hook to get people to use it."

» Cynthia Brumfield points out the upside: "Still, the network also offers a lot of intangible benefits to the city, providing law enforcement communications and other municipal needs ... the network needs 500,000 subscribers to break-even ... WiFly is trying to up the value proposition of its network by offering VoIP service, online game access and music downloads. But that’s a lot of work — in essence WiFly has to behave like a traditional communications company."

» Glenn Fleishman: "Perhaps the biggest difference between Taipei and comparable U.S. metropolises, only mentioned in passing in this article, is that cell data services are substantially better and cheaper than in the U.S. Where the majority of Philadelphia residents have dial-up service and almost certainly little or no cell data access, Taipei residents might have wired Internet service and advanced cell phones ... The network ... reaches throughout the subway system, which is an impressive achievement, and will ultimately make the network more widely used when the telephone service and game service are offered."

» Wulingren lives there: "Yes, wireless is free at Doutor, Mr. Brown, New York Coffee, and some others, but many of the cafes and fastfood joints like Starbucks are signed up with Wifly. This means you can use the same 30-day wireless card in Starbucks and other cafes, as well as in and around the Metro stations. One factor contradicting the city's plan for ubiquitous access is that this card doesn't work in all cafes and fastfood joints ... That means you have to buy a separate card at these places. Moreover, the majority of people who have laptops are already paying for broadband in their homes at much cheaper prices than most deals in the States. So, the city is basically asking people to pay again for wireless service. The two together is still probably cheaper than what I was paying in Philadelphia."

» Taipei denizen Charles sums it up: "Doesn't Fly. Nobody Comes. Woe."

Buffer overflow:

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And finally... not the Sony TV spot

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.