Chinese tourists demand cheap WiFi

Tech companies are looking hard at the promising market of portable WiFi services as a flood of Chinese people head overseas loaded with demand for high-speed Internet.

The companies hope to expand their WiFi business to other countries, tech.sina.com.cn reported.

For tourists, a big headache is getting access to mobile Internet at a reasonable cost.

A survey from Sina.com, the leading Web portal in China, showed that 77.7 percent of outbound tourists think they must have access to the Internet, and nearly 64 percent of them want free WiFi at hotels, airports and restaurants because they think the fees from their communication carriers are too high.

Now Chinese companies are beginning to offer portable WiFi services to help outbound tourists control the daily fee — holding it to less than 40 yuan ($6.50). The average price of overseas mobile Internet service is about 70 yuan per 100 megabytes per day.

Liu Jing, founder and CEO of Skyroam, which focuses on overseas mobile Internet services, said its clients can get access to local communication networks for the price of a cup of coffee.

Skyroam covers 45 countries and is expected to cover more than 100 in the coming year.

Liu said Skyroam is providing service for Chinese tourists, but the company will provide service to overseas clients through channels such as Amazon, BestBuy and overseas airports.