Vietnam sets up first wireless hotspot
HANOI - Vietnam Data Communications Co. (VDC) said on Friday it has launched the country's first wireless hotspot enabling surfers to access the Internet on their computer laptops or mobile devices.
The subsidiary of the state-owned Vietnam Post and Telecommunication Corporation set up a WiFi (wireless fidelity) hotspot at a Hanoi university on Thursday to test the technology.
Users of laptops and handheld mobile gadgets are able to surf the web within 300 metres of the hotspot.
"If this proves to be popular over the next few weeks of this trial period then we will roll out the network elsewhere," said Nghiem Xuan Tinh, deputy director of VDC.
Tinh said the company had drawn up plans to establish as many as 100 other hotspots across Vietnam, including at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport and Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh City, before December's Southeast Asian Games.
He declined to say how much VDC had earmarked for the network.
About a million Vietnamese are estimated to have regular access to the web, mainly through Internet cafes. VDC is the largest of the five operating Internet service providers with around 56 percent of all subscribers.
WiFi technology has taken the IT world by storm, with the relative cheapness of setting up a hotspot making it a viable option for airports, coffee shops and other public places.
Agence France Presse - June 20, 2003.
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