with the influx of iPhone AND iPad into mainstream Korean community
Wi-Fi is everywhere – the fastest AND cost-effective way to connect wireless onto the internet in South Korea,
most office are linked by network cables while more complex interiored homes have some sort of wireless that a typical search for connection would show half-a-dozen access points .
it was common sight in subways to see passengers watching DMB TV on their tiny cell phones
but now Wi-Fi is in most subway lines in metropolis .
though disappointing is Wi-Fi on the Korean bullet train KTX .. perhaps because they move faster than any other transportation mentioned here
– the common disconnection is a shame on the World’s most wired AND now wireless society .
( Wi-Fi is paid service while FREE for First Class with a small computer booth between carriages )
all the rest of Wi-Fi in this Post is a FREE service .
better yet, the new express train linking the old Seoul Train Station to inCheon Airport
boasts a cornered compartment with an iPad/Galaxy Tab intact 😉
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– Korea Tech BLog, May 2011 –
( February 23rd 2012 Update ) Subway Free Wi-Fi Speed to increase 5 Times
Korea’s major telephone company and second cell phone carrier KT will be exchanging current “Public Egg” with the new “Premium Public Egg” by April 2012 .
Public Egg is a mobile router hung above inter-connectiong doors between carriages on subway trains, that receives WiBro internet signals and converts into Wi-Fi mostly for smart-phones but also tablets like iPad and even notebook laptops to log on to the internet .
current devices allow a maximum of 30 people to log on simultaniously while the newer device will up the ante to 80 .
while all major mobile service has been concentrated on Seoul metropolis, KT has installed these into the port city of Busan or Pusan’s Subway Line 4 last August,
and will increase this free service onto all subway lines in Busan or Pusan .
competition carrier SKT will also increase power and speed of free Wi-Fi on Seoul and Busan or Pusan subways by this May 2012 :
- use 5GHz in addition to current 2GHz,
- increase signal strength by 10 times,
- double simultanious log ons,
*I better refrain from these announcements telecommunication companies flash-out for sheer show, while actual results come late – if it does, and with much exaggerated numbers //
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( December 2nd 2013 Update ) while antenna’d wireless routers hung atop the front buses AND every other subway train carriage may impress you : actual connection has been a joke – perhaps due to the number of sign-on limitations (i.e., how many people can use each node at the same time), until now . while it is essentially mind-resting to use cellular 3G OR LTE instead of getting constant hangs on Wi-Fi, on buses and subways .. this is the first time on South Korea belated bullet train KTX I had a smooth Wi-Fi ride – offered FREE on special class taking up the front 4 carriages (right after the first which is movie carriage), although it now cost a good W20,000 more than normal carriage, hiked from former W10,000 difference -_-