Free wifi finally comes to Beijing’s buses, and it’s fast

Riders of Beijing’s bus system, rejoice! Now after you squeeze your way into that crowded rush hour bus, you’ll be able to hop online and complain to your friends on WeChat about it without having to use any mobile data. Maybe.

Yes, after years of planning – we first wrote about this back in April of 2012 – free wifi on Beijing’s buses is actually a reality. According to Techweb, 12,000 of the city’s buses sport mobile wifi networks and it’s all operational right now.

And at least in theory, these networks should be able to support the traffic load that comes when dozens of passengers cram onto the popular lines during rush hour. They offer speeds of 50 Mb/s, and reportedly support as many as 40 people opening the same page in a single second, meaning that they should be able to handle the broadband needs of a full complement of riders. The Techweb article even claims that the networks are solid enough for you to stream video.

Logging on to the wifi will require downloading a client app through which you register for the network, but after you’ve gone through that process once it should be smooth sailing.

If things go well in Beijing, it’s quite probable China’s other cities will follow suit. If the internet is fast enough, the change could be a boon for streaming video sites, as a massive number of people ride China’s buses every day and would be looking for ways to amuse themselves online. Until now, streaming video on a bus generally meant eating up a lot of your monthly data allotment, but if the onboard wifi is really fast enough to stream video, China’s rush hour bus passengers could provide a flood of traffic to sites like Youku.

See: Chelaile could be China’s best bus tracking app, but limited cities are a dealbreaker

(Source: Techweb)