Olympic Media Village – Internet Minibar
I take back my gripes about paying Accor hotels US $30 a night for Internet access. We have a new winner, namely the Beijing Olympics Media Village. My wife who is staying there already told me they were going to charge reporters for Internet access (and a censored one at that) but now the details have been posted to Slashdot, the online tech salon:
“Working for the Olympics as an IT contractor, I recently moved to the Media Village (where all of the reporters live) and was surprised the there was no free internet. BOCOG (Beijing Organizing Committee of the 2008 Olympic Games) is charging a ridiculous amount of money for ADSL service: for
- 512/512 it costs 7712.5 RMB (1,131.20 USD);
- 1M/512 it costs 9156.25 (1,342.95 USD);
- 2M/512 it costs a whopping 11,700 RMB (1,716.05 USD).
That is for only one month! For extra features like a fixed IP? That costs an additional 450 RMB (66 USD). I just can’t believe that not only do I have to deal with the Great Firewall of China, but also pay through the nose to use it!”
While I can imagine that it is “noise” for NBC and the big guys, it is not inconsequential for other news outfits.
I suggest someone be kind and bring an Airport Express or other Wifi router and share the Internet love.
July 28th, 2008 05:11
Wouldn’t it be cheaper to use an internet cafe at that point? Hell, my crappy China Telecom connection is about 700RMB for six months. Nice to see China still enjoys ripping off visitors at every turn.
July 28th, 2008 08:40
I’m using China Netcom connection
1M cost 150RMB/m
July 28th, 2008 22:35
My guess is that every single Chinese Internet Cafe (5 RMB/hour) within a 5 kilometer radius of the Media Village will be shut down for two months, to “ensure the smooth hosting of the Olympics and safeguard the city’s social stability during the Olympic games” of course.
My suggestion is to head for the Haidian District, which has Beijing’s largest concentration of Internet Cafes.
July 29th, 2008 00:53
[...] Andrew is very surprised about the Internet access fee in the media center at Beijing Olympics. Posted by Oiwan Lam Share This [...]
July 29th, 2008 06:23
So internet is not “free” (in $) and not “free” as in censored. So, which “free” was China talking about when IOC asked ?
July 30th, 2008 10:31
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July 30th, 2008 12:09
[...] Andrew Lih points to another major constraint on internet access – the cost. His wife is staying in the Media Village in Beijing, and discovered a pricing structure for ASDL connections that beggars belief: * 512/512 it costs 7712.5 RMB (1,131.20 USD); * 1M/512 it costs 9156.25 (1,342.95 USD); * 2M/512 it costs a whopping 11,700 RMB (1,716.05 USD). [...]
July 30th, 2008 12:40
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上网，…出去还戴白å£ç½©ï¼
July 31st, 2008 06:43
At least the food is cheap! We just posted on the $1 all you can eat buffets.
July 31st, 2008 15:47
[...] Andrew Lih points to another major constraint on internet access – the cost. His wife is staying in the Media Village in Beijing, and discovered a pricing structure for ASDL connections that beggars belief: * 512/512 it costs 7712.5 RMB (1,131.20 USD); * 1M/512 it costs 9156.25 (1,342.95 USD); * 2M/512 it costs a whopping 11,700 RMB (1,716.05 USD). [...]
August 1st, 2008 08:47
Mrs. Lih is an IT contractor, not the target customer of all these rate card services. They are designed for press agencies and approved by IOC. If you have previous Olympic Games experience, you will find that all priceses on rate card list in Beijing are lower than before. BTW, free of charge internet access has never been promised. Mrs. Lih doesn’t need to be superised. If you once participate the WPB(World Press Briefing) last year, you will find that all you mentioned are agreed by all press agencies.
August 1st, 2008 19:54
[...] A pesar de las promesas de acceso libre y sin censuras a Internet para los periodistas que acudan a PekÃn 2008, la realidad es que ese acceso no resulta gratuito y, lo que es aún peor, se limita a la conexión a la Red en versión china, con sitios bloqueados y contenidos filtrados. [...]
August 2nd, 2008 02:46
Superise, just to clarify — my wife’s a journalist and not an IT contractor.
August 2nd, 2008 07:58
[...] Andrew Lih, commenting on the claim that internet access in the Olympic village is not free nor cheap. [...]
August 2nd, 2008 09:50
If not an IT contractor, why it says black and white as “Working for the Olympics as an IT contractor, I recently moved to the Media Village (where all of the reporters live)… ” A journalist working for the Olympics as an IT contractor? Just curious about the truth.
August 3rd, 2008 05:43
Ah perhaps there was a misunderstanding — my wife told me of the high prices, but the exact amounts in the blog post come from Slashdot quoting an IT contractor.
August 4th, 2008 23:05
I see some angry nationalists have got in on the thread – 6&8 – with unconstructive, and for the majority unintelligible, comments: I suggest posting in english since the site is in english and the majority will actually understand you. But maybe think of something good to say first instead of some silly word games.
Such high internet prices are silly, though I expect it is fairly common practice at events such as this, though the firewall degrades performance: what were internet prices at previous olympics?
August 9th, 2008 05:27
Yay! Interesting.
August 11th, 2008 10:26
i wonder how can they stop it…. there are so many sources of the olympic videos