Thursday, December 08, 2005

And the wireless winner is....


Intel expanded its annual Wireless Hotspots Poll to Asia, and not too soon either. Clear winner was Pacific Coffee on Victoria Peak (weirdly shaped building in centre of picture), followed by Starbucks at Circular Quai in Sidney.

Wireless surfers clearly don't just sip coffee and read their email - they enjoy the view as well. Third place was for Suntec City Convention Centre in Singapore, which doesn't offer great views but much greater speeds and coverage over a larger surface and more restaurants. More than half of the Top Ten takes the scenic route: Shanghai's entertainment centre Xintiandi on 6, China's Great Wall on 7, HK's Ocean Centre with its stunning harbour view on 8, Korea's Jeju Island on 10.

In other words: view comes first, wireless network quality follows at some distance. Maybe companies on high floors should rethink their VPN filtering policies and cover up the windows instead.

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