DURING their annual meeting, some members of the local committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) uttered their disappointment about public Wi-Fi service, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

    Members of the Shenzhen Committee of China National Democratic Construction Association raised concerns that a large number of the public Wi-Fi hot spots were not in service.

    The Daily confirmed that the problem did exist in many public venues such as Dongmen Pedestrian Street in Luohu District and the service lobby of the municipal government as well as some parks and hospitals. Many residents also complained about the inactive services.

    A proposal put forward by the advisers pointed out that they had tested the public Wi-Fi service at many public venues such as parks, train stations and book stores, where free Wi-Fi service was promised, but the result was unsatisfactory.

    Although the advisers’ phones could detect Wi-Fi signals, they could barely connect to the Internet. Even if the advisers’ phones finally connected with the signals after many rounds of entering verification codes, most of the time the Internet still did not work well at these public venues.

    Under the current system, a lot of places have multiple Wi-Fi networks covered by the three major operators, namely China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom.

    However, the three operators asked for different kinds of verification for access to the Internet, making it inconvenient for phone users. So the advisers suggested that an overall plan be drafted by the government to better manage the service.

    Also, it was suggested that the government ask a third-party operator to construct and optimize the service to benefit residents.  (Zhang Qian)