Fred, a fund manager who frequently travels overseas on business, was full of praise for the citywide Wi-Fi concept.
He said: "My regular visits to North America involve long-haul flights of 10 hours or more. Although some flights offer Internet access, I like to finish all my work before I take off so that I can relax while in flight."
After Fred checked in recently, he visited a coffee shop in Hong Kong International Airport's departure hall for breakfast and to use the wireless broadband service.
He said: "Inevitably, I had some urgent emails I needed to handle before take-off. Luckily, HKIA offers a full Wi-Fi service, so it was easy for me to respond to email while waiting to board my flight."
Fred also needed to talk to his secretary in the US to arrange meetings, so he used a Voice-over-Wireless IP (VoWIP) phone.
He said: "Although local IDD rates are not expensive, VoWIP provides the same call quality for free, so I always use the service if it is available."
Shortly before boarding his flight, Fred learned that traffic arrangements at his destination had changed since his last visit.
"I usually familiarize myself with local maps and transport routes before take-off. However, this time I was too busy to prepare properly. Fortunately, I was still able to use Wi-Fi to search for maps on the Internet before boarding my flight. I normally use GPRS to browse maps via my mobile. Unfortunately, this means the line is reserved solely for GPRS services and all incoming calls must be diverted to my voicemail or another pre-set phone number. This is so inconvenient! That's why Wi-Fi is always my first choice," said Fred.
Hong Kong remains a highly-competitive city, but the arrival of citywide Wi-Fi is sure to add a whole new dimension to our digital freedom!
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