Internet service provider 5BB Broadband is planning to expand the number of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Yangon, aiming for 50 access points by the end of February

Internet service pro­vider 5BB Broadband is planning to expand the number of free Wi-Fi hotspots in Yangon, aim­ing for 50 access points by the end of February.

5BB has already set up 30 access points at restau­rants, pagodas, railway stations, universities and parks around Yangon. In February, they will ex­tend that to 50 hotspots, said U Myo Myint Nyunt, general manager of 5BB Broadband.

“At the beginning of the project, we had to nego­tiate with the owners in charge of these places to be allowed to install inter­net access. Based on the results of negotiating with them, we will set up more access points,” he said.

Compared with the plentiful, lightning fast Wi-Fi of regional neigh­bours such as Bangkok, a lack of infrastructure has meant Wi-Fi in Yangon has been prohibitively expensive for customers and unreliable for users. Up until recently the city lackedeven a bare bones public Wi-Fi network.

But that changed re­cently, with the public Wi-Fi rollout beginning in December last year. The initial phase brought free internet to six Yangon landmarks: Shwedagon Pagoda, the University of Medicine, the University of Foreign Languages, Yangon International Airport, the Central Rail­way Station, and Bogyoke Market.

Ma Yu, a student study­ing Japanese in her mid-twenties, is a Wi-Fi con­vert. On her regular visits to Shwedagon Pagoda she uses the free internet to check her Facebook.

Mahar Bandula and Kandawgyi Parks would make the perfect places to provide free Wi-Fi access because they’re always busy with visitors, mostly young people and fami­lies, she said.

5BB’s free Wi-Fi zones are all equipped with high-speed internet and require no passwords for access.

(Myanmar Business Today: http://www.mmbiztoday.com/articles/broadband-company-expand-free-public-wi-fi-network-50-areas-yangon)

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