BAYAN LEPAS: Penangites will be able to enjoy better, faster and more convenient Penang Free Wifi (PFW) services by the third quarter of this year, a much needed upgrade initiated by the state government.
State Public Works, Utilities and Flood Mitigation Committee chairman Zairil Khir Johari said that it was timely that the PFW was upgraded as there had been numerous complaints due to the poor service since it was introduced in 2009.
“We conducted surveys and there has been several reports on the services. Over the years, the internet has evolved but we are still using the old system.
“Furthermore, the cost for the services is also not worthy of the internet experience. So we are looking at improving the speed, coverage and also the customer experience,” he told a press conference today.
At the moment, there were 1,560 access points for the PFW in all 40 state constituencies with a maximum of 30 users per access point.
The state government has been paying up to RM154,000 monthly since May 2011 for the services offered by REDtone.
Total number of people logged in to use the PFW since 2009 until today stood only at 690,000.
“The lower number of people using it could be due to the inconvenience and poor services. At times. users logged out after 30 minutes of use and they had to manually log in again to use the services, a bit of hassle. So we are looking at improving that as well,” he added.
The Request for Proposal will be offered from Feb 13 and interested telecommunication companies can submit their application within three to six months.
In the meantime, the PSW will be suspended.
The earliest, he said, that Penangites could enjoy the upgraded PSW was by the end of July.
“Some of the big names have shown interests in this,” added Zairil.