GEORGE TOWN, Oct 22 – Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng launched 50 high-speed Wifi hotspots in the Heritage and Komtar areas in George Town. Penang Free Wifi users are in for a treat as 50 hotspots have been upgraded to offer speeds of 3Mbps from the previous 1Mbps.
“There would be more announcements on the WiFi service when new hotspots were introduced. We want to make the Internet easily accessible to everyone at any time. And judging from the number of registered users that we have which is about 600,000, I can say that we have achieved our aim,” said Lim.
“We are very happy that free WiFi in public places continues to be so popular. We have launched for six years, now it had gradually increased the number of free WiFi hotspots to 1,560 in the island itself and the mainland, something that the public will be pleased to know,” he said.
“In addition to enabling more people access the free service, we have also as recently as February this year, upgraded the bandwidth from 75Mbps to 375Mbps. This piece of good news was welcomed by many as it meant that Internet users can get faster speed of up to 1Mbps. Previously it was 512kbps,” he said.
“With the faster speed now at your fingertips, I hope users will be able to do more things better, for example when downloading videos and images. Overall, their web browsing experience will be enhanced at these 50 high speed hotspots. The Penang State Government believes that faster internet or digital broadband speed is a necessary and sufficient condition to become a high-income economy and developed country,” said Lim during the launch at his Komtar office here on Wednesday.
“Whilst the Communication and Multimedia Minister may prefer lower broadband speeds, this is just like the declaring that we can move forward by going backwards. The Penang State Government intends to showcase a model of faster broadband speed vis-a-vis a slower one as to whether it is the faster Penang version or the slower one that will attain international and intelligent city status which is cleaner, greener, safer and healthier,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lim also added that the latest upgrade costs an additional RM25,000 a month, but the amount is funded by service provider Redtone International Berhad as a bonus for the state and its people. This means the state does not have to pay any additional sum to the RM1.85 million it is now paying annually for the service, introduced in 2009.
Besides that, Redtone group chief executive officer Lau Bik Soon said those looking for the 3Mbps service could look out for stickers bearing the new logo. He also said the service had become very popular, with usage increasing from 15TB to 30TB a month over the past few months.
In the same time, the high speed WiFi hotspots in Komtar are also included in the Pacific Mall on level 1 and 3, above Maybank on level 2, the ICT@Komtar and bus station on level 1, Komtar Walk and government offices in Komtar on level 3, 11, 28, 47, 52, 53, 55, and 56.
Those in the heritage zone include the Penang Chinese Town Hall on Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, and selected business outlets on Lebu Carnavon, Lebuh Kimberley, Lebuh Church, Lebuh China, Lebuh Pasar, Lebuh Chulia, Lebuh Leith, Lebuh Muntri, and Lebuh Bishop.
