Comments on: Can Free Public WiFi Work in the Philippines?

By: skyflakes

skyflakes — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:17:25 +0000

taympers: now THAT’s quite impossible, especially the latter.

By: taympers

taympers — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:48:44 +0000

thats possible as long as it is supported and never be abused.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:17:23 +0000

I think free WiFi is possible in the Philippines. While more and more people are getting web-savvy, not that many people can afford WiFi-enabled devices anyway.

As a result, the infrastructure won’t be that burdened, unlike your experience in Singapore.

However, once WiFi-enabled devices become cheaper and more users are introduced to it, the infrastructure is sure to be burdened soon enough.

The question is: how long would it take before the local cellphone craze extends into the WLAN dimension? I can’t say. Perhaps five years, perhaps even shorter.

Who knows? Moore’s Law is certainly making advanced technology more accessible in a shorter span of time.

By: Rico

Rico — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:38:01 +0000

sultanjr: I'm not sure if there will ever be a way to "force" people to pay for what they download on the web. Copy protection is theoretically impossible, because even if you place limitations on the hardware people use, there will always be a way to defeat those through software. Case in point: iPods and Floola. Brownspank: I think this is already being done. My experience with Bona Coffee, for instance, is that they limit the number of active connections their free WiFi users can use. I'm not sure if that's feasible on a much larger, public scale however.

By: Brownspank

Brownspank — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:41:23 +0000

Whoever’s shouldering this could offer free WiFi at a “casual speed”, say 128kbps, then offer a premium service to users who want faster speeds. That should make free WiFi a reality, without having to put as much pressure on telecoms.

By: sultanjr

sultanjr — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 03:34:39 +0000

Public wifi should be made widely available but it can’t be free – like electricity and water, we all need to pay for what we use. I don’t think anyone can truly afford to make public wifi free in the long term, even advertisers.

But I think the current addiction to downloading is largely because most of downloads are illegal. I think when the time comes that people are forced to pay for everything they download off the web, the addiction should fall.