Pattaya City goes wi-fi

Pattaya City will become the first tourist destination beyond Bangkok, to offer free high-speed Wi-Fi at more than 1,000 spots following the signing of an agreement with True Corporation last week. Pattaya City signed a memorandum of understanding with the True Corporation worth Bt100 million covering system set up and service for three years. The company’s wireless network will cover 80% of the city during the first year and 100% by 2015. Free wireless internet will be available at all major tourist spots from Na Kluea in north Pattaya, south all the way to Jomtien beach. It will offer users a download speed of 2 megabits per second. Pattaya City Mayor, Ittipon Kunploem said that the free public service should help boost tourism by another 7% to 10% from the current annual 5.5 million tourists. Around 70% of all visitors are international tourists. The service will be free for residents and tourists, but they will need to register first by locating  @TRUEWIFI hotspot and then registering under the category Pattaya free Wi-Fi. Each registration will last three months and allow just five-hours use a month. Wi-Fi registration requires identification card numbers for Thai residents and passports numbers for tourists. Previously, CAT Telecom built a fibre-optic network for Pattaya, while TOT now provides Wi-Fi along the city’s beaches at a speed of 256 kbps. Pattaya is the second city after Bangkok to offer free Wi-Fi access.