Citizen-led public free Wi-Fi
A project in which citizens install the free Wi-Fi that becomes a last lifeline when a phone line is cut off.
- Started
- 2020
- Area
- Tokyo
- Status
- Pilot installations
- Partners
- Tsukuroi Tokyo Fund and others
When hardship reaches the point where your own phone line is cut off, free Wi-Fi in the city becomes the last lifeline.
But the convenience-store chains that carried much of that role have one after another stopped offering their own Wi-Fi, and municipal provision has been shrinking since the Olympics.
This project aims to address that, at least in part, through citizen-led installation of public free Wi-Fi.
How it has developed
Working with Tsukuroi Tokyo Fund and several other organizations, we have provided Wi-Fi at outdoor consultation events since 2020. Since 2022 we have been trialling permanent free Wi-Fi at a small number of facilities with a strong public role.