PCCW offers free Wi-Fi service at 158 public rental housing estates

May 24, 2011 - PRLog -- HONG KONG, May 24, 2011 – As part of its ongoing quest to transform Hong Kong into a leading Wi-Fi city, PCCW is extending free Wi-Fi service to 158 public rental housing estates across the territory, benefiting around 2 million residents.

Since 2008, PCCW has been providing free Wi-Fi at 45 public rental housing estates. From today, the service will be available at all existing public rental housing estates in Hong Kong. Between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. every day, residents will be able to enjoy PCCW’s free wireless broadband service at the recreation areas of the estates and some shopping centers via Wi-Fi enabled devices, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops. PCCW is also prepared to install and operate more Wi-Fi hotspots at new public rental housing estates.

The additional hotspots in the housing estates further widen PCCW’s citywide Wi-Fi network. Today, PCCW has unparalleled Wi-Fi coverage with about 9,000 hotspots throughout Hong Kong, enabling speedy, reliable and stable Internet experience at convenience stores, coffee shops, shopping malls, key MTR stations, Airport Express stations and trains, the airport, as well as PCCW phone kiosks.

For many years, PCCW has been offering free Wi-Fi to various segments of the community as a public service. Hundreds of thousands of university and other tertiary students have enjoyed free Wi-Fi at their campuses since 2007. The public can also access Hong Kong Government service websites through PCCW’s free Wi-Fi. PCCW’s partnership with Hong Kong International Airport has even created one of the largest free wireless broadband coverage zones available at major international airports in the world.

Furthermore, PCCW also helps promote Hong Kong to visitors by offering them free access to Internet to obtain the latest information from the Hong Kong Tourism Board about events and festivals, mobile travel guides, etc.

At the same time, PCCW is also offering another free service, where public rental housing estate residents may watch round-the-clock news programs of now NEWS Channel over 1,100 sets of 22” high-resolution LCD TV installed in the estates’ ground floor lift lobbies. The programs are carried on the “Housing Channel”, operated by PCCW, which also carries video clips from the Hong Kong Housing Authority to keep residents updated on important information such as safe use of estate facilities, healthy living, green practices and schemes of interest or importance to residents. The platform also enables the Housing Authority to input and display important and localized messages on the on-screen rolling text bar. Going forward, PCCW will further extend the service to more new public rental housing estates. In addition, PCCW is also planning to extend the service to cover estates under the Tenants Purchase Scheme.