Hohoho, its almost Christmas!
Suitcases, new city, language barrier, time differences, varied public transport, solo traveller or with a partner, these and more can describe the chaos a visitor encounters once theY land in a new city, be it as a local or an international traveller.
When you arrive, by bus, train or by air, you are faced with many questions: How do you navigate the city, where to stay, where to eat and what to see, or even where to avoid.
By modern reflex, you quickly turn to your phone, and wore unto you if you have run out of airtime, or worse, if you are a visitor from overseas, and your network provider doesn’t have services in your host country.
In my recent trip to Europe, for instance, once you arrive at the airport, or a train station, you are spoilt of choice for free WIFI spots to use. The airport has free WIFI and to my surprise, also all manner of shops and restaurants have free WIFI.
This looked to me more of a marketing gimmick. You go to the shop or restaurant, which you feel has the best network reception for you. After all, our phones have now replaced many things: Directories, work stations, maps, postal services, and even friendships, so we can’t run away from the fact that it provides that unintentional company, and work convenience.
Nairobi county has done a tremendous job. Most shops in malls have limited to free public WiFi. Other public entities, for instance, Jomo Kenyatta International Airport only granted free WIFI for 1 hour many moons ago. Now you can access the same for 24 hours. Many bus companies also have free WIFI services. What if other public places emulated this move by JKIA? For instance, to pull people to use certain areas, like Uhuru Park, Arboretum by providing free public WIFI?
Nyeri county this week launched free WiFi in the market.
Such a service does not only have to be limited to parks but also in government facilities that provide services to citizens. Other counties can also put in place measures to have free WIFI in public facilities, to attract international tourists, summer bunnies, locals and seasonal guests who are in ‘’Ushago’’ for Christmas, as an extension of the comfort they have in the big cities they are from.
Networks and internet connections have allowed people to sell goods and services, learn about new things, execute and distribute their ideas. Both urban, peri-urban and rural business people can benefit from these connections, with tourists.
Granted, free WIFI has its issues: cyberattacks on businesses, theft of personal information, hackers, unencrypted connections, session hijacking and many others. These and more, are issues that can be handled by our national security and professionals to ensure the public WIFI brings more good than harm to our rapidly developing cities.
Implementing partners can also work with the Communications Authority on curbing cyber attack threats. Educating the public on how to stay safe when using public WIFI should also be one of the considerations by the counties and I suppose this can be done together with the authority.
In the advent of new media and the rapid advancement in digital technology, WIFI is now almost a basic need. A huge number of Kenyan citizens have access to smart phones. Being connected is essential to any developed city, both for the inhabitants and the visitors.
Can our county governments gift us public WIFI this Christmas season so we can know and go to some of those hidden gems in our counties?
Vera is a part time lecturer and a communications researcher
