Wi-Fi 'PangPang' Now Available at Anyangcheon and Cheonwangsan Camping Sites in Guro-gu

In 2015, the first nationwide village buses were equipped with Wi-Fi networks before public Wi-Fi existed... Expanded annually to digital complexes, Guro Station and Sindorim Station plazas, bus stops, parks, etc... Strengthened further this year with S-Net... Over 1,200 wireless access points installed

[Asia Economy Reporter Jongil Park] Guro-gu, the ‘king’ of public Wi-Fi, has become even stronger.

Guro-gu (Mayor Lee Seong) announced on the 17th that “the public Wi-Fi zone installation project targeting Anyangcheon, Cheonwangsan Family Camping Site, Garibong Market, Guro Market, and others has recently been completed and the service has started.”

Guro-gu is widely recognized as the leading city for public Wi-Fi. Ahead of the 2014 local government elections, Mayor Lee Seong pledged to create public Wi-Fi zones as part of the ‘digital welfare’ project, stating, “There should be no information gap caused by wealth disparity.”

Based on the mayor’s strong will, Guro-gu has steadily promoted the public Wi-Fi zone creation project since 2014 to bridge the information gap for marginalized groups and reduce residents’ communication costs.

In January 2015, when the concept of public Wi-Fi was not yet established, Guro-gu became the first in the nation to install Wi-Fi networks on all village buses in the area. In the same year, Wi-Fi networks were also built in high-traffic areas such as Guro Digital Complex, Guro Station Plaza, and Sindorim Station Plaza. In 2016, the installation expanded to bus stops and some schools, and in 2017, to Hangdong Arboretum, parks, and other locations.

Thanks to these efforts, by 2017, the entire district effectively became a free Wi-Fi zone for the public, attracting nationwide attention.

Since then, in 2018 and 2019, Guro-gu focused on resolving shadow areas, and this year, it became even stronger by joining Seoul’s Smart Seoul Network (S-Net) ‘Kkachion’ project.

Selected as a pilot area for Seoul’s Kkachion project, Guro-gu invested 1.7 billion KRW of city funds to install wireless access points at 171 locations within the district. Representative sites include Anyangcheon, Cheonwangsan Family Camping Site, Garibong Market, and Guro Market. Access points were also installed on roads and in parks. In particular, Anyangcheon now has a total of 40 access points, including 25 previously installed by Guro-gu, creating a dense and seamless Wi-Fi network.

To connect to the public Wi-Fi network, users can search for Wi-Fi signals on mobile devices such as smartphones or laptops and select ‘SEOUL’ or ‘SEOUL_Secure’ to connect. There is no need for separate website registration or authentication procedures; users can access it immediately.

To avoid confusion among residents, Guro-gu also changed the connection method of wireless access points it had installed independently to ‘SEOUL’ or ‘SEOUL_Secure.’ As of November 2020, Guro-gu has installed a total of about 1,200 wireless access points, including the 171 installed through the Kkachion project.

A Guro-gu official said, “With the shift to a contactless society due to COVID-19, the importance of Wi-Fi has increased even more,” and added, “We will do our best to ensure that no residents are excluded from information use by creating a seamless public Wi-Fi zone.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.