Qatar public parks attracting more Internet surfers

Apart from taking a breath of fresh air and long walks, public parks are also emerging as preferred place to surf the Internet. The total log-ins in parks across Qatar have surged by 250 percent to 689,000 in 2013 from 195,739 in 2011.

Nine parks are providing free Internet access to visitors and witnessing about 50,000-70,000 log-ins every month, according to data from the Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology (ictQatar).

About 11,000 to 15,000 people are using the free WiFi at these parks. "Peak usage (of WiFi) is during evenings, weekend and holidays," a senior official of ictQatar told this daily.

"WiFi is accessible through a simple, secure registration process in English and Arabic and supported by a 24/7 customer care hotline," he said.

At an average, each user spends about 52 minutes accessing free Internet service during their visit to the park. One of the major reasons behind the increasing usage of the Internet in parks is its easy accessibility.

This year ictQatar has introduced easier way to access the Internet in parks and visitors just have to click on the link they get after sending an SMS to a toll free digital code.

Earlier visitors were required to first connect the device through WiFi and then had to enter their mobile number on the iParks landing page. After entering the number they would receive pin code through SMS to access the Internet.

"ictQatar has implemented a comprehensive WiFi network solution with secured authentication mechanism for providing free access in parks," said the official. "There are over 60 outdoor access points in parks, all centrally managed through one network operations centre. We have achieved 99 percent service availability through implementation of comprehensive availability and incident management procedures," he said.

The iParks initiative to provide high speed (8mbps) free Internet access to visitors was introduced in 2007.

The nine parks with the facility are: Sheraton Park, Rumailah Park, Dahl Al Hamam Park, Al Wakrah Public Park, Corniche Al Khor, Simaisma Park, Dukhan Park, Umm Salal and Shahaniyah Park. [The Peninsula]