The government's free Wi-fi coverage, which has so far cost taxpayers HK$212 million, was criticised by the Audit Commission yesterday.
Its signal was weak outdoors, connection speeds were slow and it was little wonder people could not be bothered to use it, a survey by the government's financial watchdog concluded.
Field tests showed one in five attempts to connect to the service outdoors failed; and when connected inside or out, half the time connection speeds proved slower than promised.
The service, named GovWiFi, was launched in 2008 and is so far available at 400 locations, such as libraries, sports grounds and government buildings. In contrast, free government Wi-fi is available at 1,200 locations in Singapore and 15,000 hot spots in London.
The commission tested connections to the service 558 times and access to websites 1,395 times at 20 locations.
Outdoors, chances of failing to connect to the service or access websites reached 17.7 per cent and 19.6 per cent respectively. Indoors, 4.8 per cent of attempts failed to connect.