Beijing Buses Are Now Equipped With Fast Free Wifi

By Justine Lopez

Buses running in downtown Beijing are now (supposedly) equipped with fast free wifi, South China Morning Post reports. Given that similar promises were made years ago, we are a tad bit skeptical.

The latest attempt to equip the city’s buses with usable wifi was launched back in July. As of now, the company in charge of the project claims to have successfully installed wifi in roughly 95 percent of buses operating within the fifth ring road. That’s 12,000 buses in total.

The wifi is being provided by 16WiFi. The same company also plans to equip 6,000 buses operating in the suburbs of Beijing with free wifi within the next month. This project is currently being tested, CRIENGLISH.com reports.

To access wifi on Beijing buses, users will have to download the “16WiFi” app and register using their real identity. After users have logged in once, they will connect automatically on future occasions.

The same company attempted to equip Beijing’s buses with free wifi in 2013, but users complained that it was far too slow. However, this time around the connection problems and internet speeds seem to have been improved upon.  

The company claims that roughly 50 passengers can connect at the same time at a maximum speed of 400 kilobits per second.

"There is no problem surfing the internet. Seven or eight passengers can watch videos at the same time,” said Lin Feng, the chief executive of 16WiFi.

In other news, there are still plans to equip Beijing subways with free wifi in the future. But we'll believe that when we see it.

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