Free wifi service in Vietnamese capital overloaded

Over 72,000 people accessed the free wifi service at new pedestrian streets in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi over the past four days, leading to lagging or overloading.

Free wifi service providers have been asked to make wireless internet connections faster and more stable to serve local residents and visitors, the Hanoi Tourism Department said Monday.

From Sept. 2, Vietnam's National Day, to Sept. 4, over 200,000 people visited Hanoi, a 22 percent increase from the same period last year, said the department.

Specifically, there were over 22,000 foreign visitors, up 11 percent, and 185,000 domestic visitors, up 23 percent.

By the end of June, Vietnam had 121.3 million mobile phone subscribers, posting a year-on-year drop of 1.8 percent, said the country's General Statistics Office. Meanwhile, Vietnam had housed 8.5 million landline broadband internet subscribers, up 26.3 percent.

(APD)