Originally it was planned to be completed by the end of last year but it has been delayed somewhat. It’s now expected to be finished by the middle of 2006. The WiFi cloud will easily be the world’s largest, covering 90% of Taipei’s 2.6 million residents. It will typically cost about $12 per month.

Taipei began planning its network in 2003. Mayor Ma Ying-jeou made the Wi-Fi effort a centerpiece of his “Cybercity” campaign to give Taipei an edge over other Asian cities.

“This will increase the cutting-edge competitiveness of this city, and make the life of our citizens even more convenient,” the mayor says.

As in Philadelphia and some other U.S. cities, Taipei opted to let the private sector build and run the network so it wouldn’t cost the city money. In August 2004, the government approved Q-ware Systems Inc., which beat out another local company in bidding. Construction started the following month. Q-ware, in turn, hired Nortel Networks Corp. of Brampton, Ontario to build, equip, and maintain the system.

Taipei has encountered obstacles. The Wi-Fi plan met resistance from state-owned Chunghwa Telecom Co., the island’s biggest phone company, which urged the city government not to launch the project, people involved with the project say.

The “telephone companies are quite nervous,” says Mr. Ma, the mayor, who expects the Wi-Fi network to help trim city spending as schools and municipal offices use it to communicate instead of pricier fixed-line and cellular-phone networks.

• Wireless Access Point 7220: (Wireless AP)
• Wireless Gateway 7250: The Wireless Gateway hides Wireless LAN-specific mobility and provides data security for the mesh transit links (between Wireless AP 7220s).
• Optivity Network Management System: Provides centralized facilities for monitoring and managing network operations

Posted by Sam Churchill on Thursday, January 19th, 2006 at 3:28 am.