There's a lot of people out there, and there's more business out there
Bus free wifi: cake or trap
There's no such thing as "fast-down" on the internet latelyOperatorAt last, real action has taken place, but many netizens remain dissatisfied. Since when did we enter a new environment, we have become used to asking, "do we have wifi?" there are two problems behind wifi's hunger: first, our need for network is already as constant as breathing air. Secondly, the three operators now have too much to offer. As a result, a number of local governments and enterprises have accelerated the construction of public wifi, of which free public transportation is of great concern。
In recent days, news has been received from the china wifi industry union that since this year, bus passengers from more than 60 cities across the country, including beijing and shanghai, are expected to enjoy free wifi by car。
However, since beijing took the lead in launching wifi throughout the country in 2013, the number and quality of internet users has been low, with complaints of poor access, slow internet speed and poor signals. In february this year, however, a media suspension was announced by a free-of-charge wifi provider of the east chinese bus, and this month, the bus, which had been heavily launched into the market, also announced a “renouncement”. Is public transportation free wifi a cake or a trap? What bottlenecks has it encountered in its development, and can it be done
— the news begins —
The bus, wifi, is a good thing, but it's been twice in two years
As an important means of transportation in our city, our bus transports up to 220 million passengers a day, operating free wifi on the bus, making it taste good to have a boring, one-way drive. However, since beijing became the first city in the country to operate the public transport wifi on a scale, the public transport wifi has been abused twice by a large number of internet users for more than two years。
It is known that as early as 2011, beijing mobile, huai-chat group developed public transportation wifi for the formation of a technical team. In 2012, beijing bus, beijing mobile and the seven color group signed a tripartite strategic cooperation agreement. From 2013 to early 2014, the beijing mobile investment made it possible to install wifi equipment on 12,000 buses, which was followed by the first concentration of internet users. "the business model was not mature." professor lutinje, assistant rector, telecommunications specialist, beijing post and telecommunications university, explained that “the public transportation wifi pushed ccmc, which was moving in china, free of charge to the user at the time, at a fee of 0. 05 yuan per minute at the end of the period. And only users of mobile companies can use it, neither connectivity nor telecommunications.” more importantly, internet users complain that a lot of cars don't go online, and they call the bus wifi a setup。
Beijing bus wifi announced in july 2014 that the fee model would be changed to a free model, that connectivity and telecommunications would be available to users and that the 3g upgrade of 4g for most vehicles would be completed by the end of the year. It was supposed to be the "geo plum" advance, and it was not the second time that internet users had focused on it: "it's too much trouble to use to download the app first, and it's too easy to connect." “i installed the app, although wifi signals are strong, but i just don't go online, and it always shows `authentication failure'.” “i can go online, but it's a little slow, the web pages are open, and the video is stuck." “the signal is weak, and it's easy to lose lines.” in recent days, the author has also had a personal experience in beijing. On the 403rd and 52nd buses, the signs “free 16wifi signal covered” were posted in visible locations. The author opened the 16 wifi app that had been downloaded in advance at home and then clicked “one key on the internet”, with the result that: the internet was successfully accessed on the 52nd bus, and the web page was freely viewed and even the video was viewed, while the 403 bus showed numerous “authentication failures” that remained inaccessible。
— core concerns —
It's all beijing's fault
“the public bus wifi has been abused by the internet, which has been caused by beijing.” in an interview with the science and technology daily, cmo liu liu, a subsidiary of the seven color group, beijing hotspot information technology ltd. (known as “the hotspot of the way”). The company operates public transport wifi in seven cities and districts, namely beijing, nanjing, fushan, sumiyang, shanghai pudong, por-dang, and accounts for half of the cities that have officially opened public transport wifi in the country and have formed a scalable operation (more than 50 per cent). “the public transportation wifi has never existed, the national follow-up market has been clean for two years, and the historical legacy has yet to be resolved as the first market.” according to him, the beijing bus wifi has serious hardware and software systems problems。
“public transportation wifi in an outdoor moving environment is much more complex than a fixed indoor site. The lack of experience in technology research and development in 2011 resulted in a high failure rate of hardware equipment inverts, high temperatures and colds. For example, when the power connects, when the car goes upside down, it loses power, and even though the wifi signal is still visible on the cell phone, it doesn't even go online, but we're turning our follow-up market into an aerial unit. In addition, the former software system, which was also dominated by beijing mobile, has some obsolete and unnecessary barriers, both at the bottom of the network architecture and at the user-access certification system, as if it were an early peak, with only one checker and two security checks, often resulting in `certification failures'.” liu expressed the view that, with the completion of the company a round, the hardware software for beijing bus wifi would be completely upgraded this year. With the exception of beijing, the hardware and software systems of the national follow-up market have now been fully dominated by the company, the failure rate has been contained within 20 per cent and will continue to be scaled up to lower levels。
App downloads are safe
In an interview with the ceo of the episcopal network, which was too cumbersome to download on-line for internet users, the use of the app was largely driven by considerations of increasing user safety, business operations and data collection (statistical user behaviour). Liu xin agreed: “there have been numerous examples of fishing by outlaws, hacking and media coverage in public through free wifi. 16 wifi app downloads are based on better user security considerations, avoiding hacker attacks, theft of property or disclosure of privacy. Secondly, the public security network inspectors currently in various locations require that the app network be adopted in order to complete the data collection.”
Operating companies that provide free-of-charge public transportation wifi services achieve wireless network coverage in public transport by distributing 3g/4g traffic to the three main operators and then installing equipment on buses to receive 3g/4g signals and convert them to wifi hot spots。
"the bus wifi is actually a big phone." liu said, “we are vip clients of the three major telecommunications operators, who give us exclusive internet access and have greater power to rob than ordinary users' mobile phones, because we pay for traffic and provide free access to passengers. But when the entire base station is clogged, or where it is not currently covered, the average user's mobile phone network is slow and poorly signaled, as is our big cell phone.”
According to professor luttinger, public transportation wifi uses a 3g/4g wireless network of three major telecommunications operators, while wifi, a user family or unit, uses wireless broadband. The telecommunications industry often says, “cable resources are unlimited and wireless resources are limited”. Family wifi now has a gigaband bandwidth, but the 4g theoretical bandwidth is 100 gigabytes. The stability of the signal is, of course, wire better than wireless. So we can't ask for public transportation wifi with home or workplace experience。
— expert advice —
User experienceIt's hard for the operator to survive
The leading hotspot company provided journalists with a screenshot of the user feedback. One user in shanghai measured the average download speed of 513. 1 kb/s using speed gauge software, equivalent to 6m broadband; one user in beijing measured only 2 mb broadband, but another screenshot from him showed that he was watching the film "major of the sky" , “none at all”. According to liu, 16wifi is a free service open to a large number of passengers and is designed to meet the basic internet needs of large users, such as tweets, microblogging, news reading, mail collection and hand-walking, but is not recommended for viewing videos via the extranet。
In response, professor luttinger laughed: “they fear that users will watch videos, causing network congestion, poor user experience, and then bet on. In the final analysis, the enhancement of the public transport wifi user experience will depend on the continued enhancement of infrastructure and network optimization by the three major telecommunications operators, known as the so-called high ship boom.”
According to the information received, the full cost of construction and operation of the public transport wifi is currently borne by the various operators, not only without subsidies from the government, but also with a small management fee for the public transport company. The wifi operator at the east china express is burning $3 million, but it's still missingProfit modeThe “forced suspension of services” was announced in the circumstances, and the one-billion-dollar bus online was also called “the massive promotion of bus wifi is in fact a hypocritical proposition”。
Will public transportation free wifi be sustainable? The under-secretary-general of the wifi industrial union of china, the founder of the great technology league, believes that public transportation wifi is a big cake and that the pattern of profit will become clearer. Businesses now tend to be limited to cashing on passengers, but i think operators can also do it by forming industrial chains with other manufacturers or making big data. The vice-president of the yangtze business school, teng binsheng, stated that only if the national market was formed and operated on a scale, could it be realized and profitable with a large number of users; if only in a single city or a few cities, it would be difficult for such enterprises to survive。
Wen intern
