SHANGHAI - A TOTAL of 500 public telephone booths in downtown Shanghai have been equipped with WiFi hotspots to enable the city to go wireless, bringing new life to the almost abandoned public phone booths.

The move reflects the popularity of mobile communication and the booths will provide a variety of community services such as mobile phone bill payment. In the future the booths might even function as photo printing studios.

The idea was first inspired by the multi-function information stations provided by China Telecom's Shanghai branch during Expo 2010 Shanghai, Zou Jinqiu, a manager at the Shanghai branch of China Telecom, told China Daily.

"Once these WiFi hotspots start to work, the major part of the city will be covered seamlessly by wireless signals," she added.

The WiFi hotspots will be initially installed in central business areas such as Yuyuan Garden, Yanzhong Park and People's Square, and will be expanded to cover the whole urban area and some suburbs, the company said. China Telecom did not give details on the timeline for the process.

With all public phone booths providing strong wireless signals, people will be able to surf the net within 50 meters of the booths by paying 0.03 yuan (S$0.006) per minute