Yokohama Chinatown to Offer Wi-Fi Using the Global Wi-Fi Service, FON

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September 10, 2015 3:45 AM EDT

Preparing a Single Wireless LAN Environment for the Rapid Increase of Tourists

YOKOHAMA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A joint project between the Yokohama Chinatown Development Association and FON, the world’s largest Wi-Fi service, is set to begin to bring Wi-Fi to the entirety of the Yokohama Chinatown.Yokohama Chinatown, with its distinctly non-Japanese air, is one of the tourist destinations where more than 21 million people visit every year. Given both the spread of mobile devices including smartphones and the rapidly increasing trend for tourists visiting Japan, it was imperative to offer Wi-Fi within Chinatown. The decision was made to work with FON, which already has users in more than 200 countries and has built a network with more than 17 million hotspots, such that everyone coming to Yokohama Chinatown, both from Japan and abroad, will be able to use the Internet safely.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150910005593/en/

Yokohama Chinatown to offer Wi-Fi using the global Wi-Fi service, FON. (Photo: Business Wire)

Free Wi-Fi service will be offered and easily available to all visitors of the principal areas of Yokohama Chinatown, including its main streets, at first, as well as within the shops of members of the Yokohama Chinatown Development Association. And because FON offers the option to log in using Facebook credentials, it will be simple and safe to get connected without all the hassle of a user registration process.

Mr. Yoichiro Ishikawa, Director of the Yokohama Chinatown Development Association’s Education & Public Outreach Division, had the following to say. “We’d like to create an environment within Yokohama Chinatown that is friendly to tourists. In recent years the increase in tourist numbers to Japan has been remarkable. We have come to believe that free Wi-Fi facilities that guests from overseas can comfortably use while in Chinatown are indispensible. We have therefore partnered with FON, who already has many users both in foreign countries and in Japan to help us create an environment in Yokohama Chinatown that is ‘Wi-Fi friendly’.”

Non-Japanese will use a Wi-Fi Service that is Already Available in More than 200 Countries: Using an unknown Wi-Fi service in a strange country can be unnerving; with its globally high name-recognition factor, our guests will feel more at ease using FON.

Easily connect using a Facebook Login or the FON App: Support for the use of Facebook login credentials eliminates the need for other more annoying login steps. There is no need to hand out cards with the Wi-Fi passcode on it. Users can also easily auto-connect to FON Wi-Fi spots using the FON connection app, available worldwide.

Connected to Yokohama Chinatown’s Navigation Service: The Wi-Fi system will connect with the Social Guidebook, which allows you to search for any and all locations associated with the Yokohama Chinatown Development Association. This will allow tourists to create and share their original guidebooks comprised of their favorite Chinatown locations.

Alex Puregger, CEO at FON Wireless, Ltd., noted the following. “We are working hard to support the growth of Wi-Fi to regional communities in every country across the globe. In addition to our work in Brooklyn, in New York City, we have made great strides as the local community Wi-Fi provider and partner for Olympic host cities such as London and Rio de Janeiro. Providing Wi-Fi to Yokohama Chinatown is part of those efforts. We are honored to be able to be involved in the effort to build on the Internet environment in Yokohama Chinatown, a tourist destination representative of the Japan experience. Moving forward, FON will continue to work to offer Wi-Fi to people through regional community involvement.”

About The Yokohama Chinatown Development Association

The Yokohama Chinatown is one of the world’s largest Chinatowns with a history that dates back 150 years to the opening of the port of Yokohama. The association is a regional one that works to develop Chinatown. Growing as it has with the development of the port of Yokohama, Chinatown has become a locus of Yokohama’s international cultural heritage, built on the hard work of the many who came before us, creating a space where history comes alive as a residence for non-Japanese. With an image of being a neighborhood where history and culture come alive, where both business and lifestyles thrive, the association works to further develop Chinatown based on our love and pride for our own surroundings. To further advance our community as a place where people can live and work safely and comfortably, we have set new neighborhood rules to enable residents and business people to work together. We take pride in being members of our community so that we can pass the uniqueness of Yokohama Chinatown on to the next generation.Yokohama Chinatown’s Japanese website: http://www.chinatown.or.jp

About FON

Martin Varsavsky, the serial entrepreneur, established FON in February of 2006, with one goal: to “blanket the world with Wi-Fi”. FON’s community Wi-Fi, as it is shared among Wi-Fi users, has grown through FON’s proprietary crowdsourcing approach, growing to become one of the world’s largest Wi-Fi networks with more than 17 million hotspots. Our telecom partners include BT (UK) and Deutsche Telekom (Germany), Vodafone (Spain/Italy), SFR (France), KPN (Netherlands), Proximus (Belgium), NOS (Portugal), Netia (Poland), OTE (Greece), MTC (Russia), Oi (Brazil), KT (Korea), Telstra (Australia), and MWEB (South Africa). FON’s investors include prominent businesses from around the world, including Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, ITOCHU Corporation, Atomico, Index Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.FON’s Japanese website: http://fon.ne.jp

FON Japan
Harunori Adachi, +81-3-3432-8778
[email protected]

Source: Fon Japan K.K.


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