英文摘要 |
In the face of the financial crisis recently, urban infrastructures used to be managed by the government were de-regulated and privatized through a transformation towards neoliberalism. The scheme of public-private partnership (PPP) was commonly adopted. However, PPP does not guarantee success and urban infrastructures may encounter the crisis of failure. This article discusses the case of municipal wireless internet infrastructure in Taipei, which had been built and operated through PPP in the beginning but was taken over by the city government after its failure. The government then made the wireless internet free for all. This article adopts the regulation theory, arguing that the change of wireless internet service in Taipei from paid to free service should be examined under the context of crossborder competition between cities and local politics. While the change from paid to free wireless service in Taipei seemed to depart from the trend of neoliberalism, it was actually a strategy of regulation aiming to enhance global competition and adapt to the local politics. |