World's largest Wi-Fi Having Growing Pains

WORLD'S LARGEST WI-FI HAVING GROWING PAINS
[SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle, AUTHOR: Ryan Kim]
Since it began 15 months ago, Taipei's Wi-Fi system has grown rapidly to become the world's largest, with more than 4,200 antennas and counting. The response of the populace, though, has fallen short of expectations. The city has struggled to get subscribers to sign up for the service called WIFLY due to some perceived performance issues, competition from free hotspots and a lack of applications. So far, about 30,000 people are using the system on a consistent basis, well short of original estimates. Taipei's pioneering experience has implications for cities in the United States that are pursuing similar networks. It is especially relevant in the Bay Area, where many small networks are running and others are planned. Taipei's network is also instructive because of the similarities between the two regions in urban density and an abundance of free hotspots, both potential problems for paid Wi-Fi systems.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/09/BUGK8P4DC...