Seoul to have free Wi-Fi by 2017
Seoul, the capital city of tech savvy South Korea, announced on Tuesday it will invest 460 billion won ($372 million) to achieve a slew of IT goals, including making free Wi-Fi available in all public places from 2017.
The city's IT investment plan entails strengthening community outreach and e-governance, increasing the number of people using the city's mVoting mobile voting app to 1 million by 2020, setting up free Wi-Fi zones in subways and buses, and launching a parking information system to help drivers find parking places.
The plan, dubbed the Seoul Digital Plan 2020, also aims to boost the presence of IoT technology in the city.
The city will establish a Seoul Digital Foundation, putting it in charge of city policies with regard to digital infrastructure and software, and a Gaepo Digital Innovation Park by September to train 33,000 additional IT professionals by 2020.
The city will also step up support to the IoT incubation centre and the Sangam S-Plex app business centre.
It's all part of the city mayor's pledge to make Seoul the most digital city in the world in five years, according to local press reports.
"This year marks the first step in implementing our digital plan. We will do everything required to make Seoul the top digital city in the world by 2020," said Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.
Source: ZDNet.co.kr