THE BEIJING MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT introduced a wireless internet service called MyBeijing last year, which was free to use for the first two hours. On May 1, that restriction was lifted, and people can now use the service free of charge for as long as they like - at least in theory, since few people have succeeded in accessing the service. Legal Daily comments:

A media investigation found that the main reason people couldn't access the service is because the bandwidth is too narrow to allow more than 20 people to use it at the same time at each site. At present the service is provided at 943 sites around the city.

It means at most 20,000 people can enjoy the service, in a city with more than 20 million residents.