Last Feb. 28, 2009, SM City Marikina soft launched their new service, mall-wide free WIFI.
Being the newest SM Mall having opened its doors to the public last September 2008,
SM City Marikina is the first on the list of SM malls for deploying WIFI and they invited bloggers for an afternoon WIFI stress-testing session.
After registration, bloggers scattered around differents parts of the mall to try out the free WIFI. Bloggers were equipped with laptops, wifi-enabled mobile phones, PSP's and PDA's.
Several bloggers reported that WIFI signals were detected from the basement up to the top floor and were able to conduct live blogging during the event. I was able to stream some youtube videos from my laptop and download updates for my anti-virus program.
By 5pm, all bloggers proceeded to the Cyberzone area where SM officials raffled off some prizes. I won a Microsoft cap. Sha, my blogger friend won the grand prize, an ASUS laptop. Incidentally, that day was her birthday so it was a great surprise and gift for her.
Personally, I's say that SM City Marikina is stepping up to the plate in terms of offering WIFI. The other malls within the vicinity, Robinsons Metro East and Sta Lucia East have been offering WIFI for a while too. SM City Marikina can now compete head on with the WIFI-enabled malls.
The city will also benefit from this as one of the biggest mall chains now offers free WIFI in the city of Marikina.
Here are some other blogger posts about the event:
Fill up the online registration to join the SM Marikina bloggers event and Wifi stress testing. Each bloggers or group of bloggers should bring their own laptop, wifi enabled devices, cellphones or gadgets to participate for the event. Live blogging, plurking, twitting, surfing etc. will be held in all areas of SM Marikina. The free wifi access will be available on that date. You can test the areas of the mall for activity of the wifi hot spot. Special venues will be provided in all areas of SM Marikina for the wifi test activity.