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Here in Taipei there's more cafes than ever and most have free Wi-Fi, and of course accommodation always has free Wi-Fi too. So I don't bother spending money for Wi-Fi access.

There do seem to be a bunch of wireless internet that have Wi-Fi signals all over the place that you would buy a membership for and then access at any of their hotspots (CHT is the biggest). It seems that in convenience stores you typically pick up several of those signals.

Sometimes I wish I could quickly double check something on Google when my offline map isn't up to snuff. Looking for a hostel or Airbnb at short notice when arriving in a new town would be another use case. But the English is often poor or absent on the gateway pages that pop up when you connect to these signals, and connecting to each one in turn and trying to figure it out can chew through device batteries faster than normal use.

Might sometimes one of the signals actually be a free one provided by the convenience store chain, perhaps offering ten minutes free or similar, as I've experienced elsewhere?

Does anyone know if any of the many convenience store chains here have free Wi-Fi even for a short time?

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    Taipei has free municipal WiFi all over, with better coverage than I've seen in any other city. There was reception in all of the metro stations I went through and outdoors in many places too. It was very useful for finding directions, since you can't save Google Maps areas in Taiwan due to licensing restrictions. The networks are normally named something like TPE Free or TPE Free + a provider name. You just need to create a free account and authenticate once, when you sign up, via SMS (international numbers are fine; I just used my US Google Voice number).
    – Urbana
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 5:09
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    Yes I've been reading about it online since I asked this question but info is pretty confusing. I don't have or want a phone but it seems there's a way to sign up by taking your passport to an office too. There was also a news article from 1.5 years ago that Taipei might cancel the program. Also I'll probably have more need for it once I leave Taipei to circumnavigate the island.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 5:44
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    If you don't have a phone number (which, even if you don't have/want a phone, is very convenient for situations like this if nothing else), you can sign up for free at Taipei Main Station or a couple other tourist information offices, the locations of which are easily Googlable. It'd be a shame if Taipei cancelled it since it was really quite impressive in its coverage; it's what I imagine other cities with "free WiFi everywhere" want their programs to be like.
    – Urbana
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 5:45
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    (To clarify, it'd be a shame if Taipei were to cancel it (future tense); they certainly haven't done so yet, since it was working just fine when I was there a week ago.)
    – Urbana
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 5:54
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    @davidvc: Here's the link to the news article about possible cancellation of the program. It's in Chinese but it's the only mention of it I've been able to find.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Aug 11, 2016 at 7:00

1 Answer 1

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Yes! As of 2023, 7-Eleven now has a 1-click free Wi-Fi called "ibon" in the vast majority of locations. Some few Hi-Life locations have a free Wi-Fi called "HiShow", but not many of them and they require a local phone number to register though you can register in English. All FamilyMart locations seem to have one called "Famí-WiFi" that has a difficult sign-in process that's only in Chinese. I haven't found an OK Mart that has Wi-Fi yet.

7-Eleven ibon Wi-Fi

Using 7-Eleven ibon

.1.Free Wi-Fi (點一點免費上網)

I haven't worked out the specifics yet but at least on the west coast at least from Lukang (鹿港) in the north to at least Kaohsiung (高雄) in the south I've very often found a free Wi-Fi signal called .1.Free Wi-Fi.

I was connected to it when I wrote the first draft of this answer: Connected to .1.Free Wi-Fi

I found their logo on a phone booth in Chiayi city: .1.Free Wi-Fi logo

I have found these signals in big cities and small towns and perhaps even isolated villages with a convenience store, but I'm not positive yet. The signals are common but they are not everywhere. In a city you can try wandering around a street or two until you get a strong signal. In a smaller place you might not get one at all. They are not tied to convenience stores.

This one requires a click to get started and then you have to also click on an ad. Each time your time/megabytes gets used up you need to click on an ad that will pop up again. If you use it for a long time these popups get more and more frequent.

Using .1.Free Wi-Fi

I finally managed to find their website but it's only in Chinese and Google Translating it doesn't tell me very much. It's a product of a company called "OPEN LiFE". The Chinese name is 點一點免費上網 (diǎn-yī-diǎn miǎnfèi shàngwǎng) "little-by-little free online".

Last time I was in Taiwan there was also a less common competitor which I only found a couple of times, but works it much the same way. It's called YO!. So far I haven't seen this one in 2023.

YO Wi-Fi

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  • I went ahead and asked a new question how to actually use the 7-Eleven service.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Sep 7, 2016 at 12:21
  • 2023 update: .1.Free Wi-Fi is now almost ubiquitous in Taipei. Just wandering around I often connect to it to use Google Maps or check if anyone is messaging me. It's been very rare to find a convenience store that doesn't have a .1.Free Wi-Fi signal. It's also "one click" so extremely quick to connect to. You don't have to fill out even a minimal form. Another service, iTaiwan seems to now be fairly common but a lot less so than .1.Free Wi-Fi.
    – hippietrail
    Commented Apr 6, 2023 at 4:53

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