WiFi is already available in thousands of Dubai taxis.

UAE residents and tourists will now be able to stay digitally connected while travelling in a Dubai taxi as another 10,000 of them will soon have WiFi available on board.

Telecom firm du has teamed up with the Roads and Transports Authority (RTA) to make WiFi connections available in these taxis­ - a project that will be rolled out in phases.

WiFi is already available in thousands of Dubai taxis, however, the number will grow significantly and make Dubai more digitally connected once Internet connection becomes available in another 10,000 taxis.

The chief digital lifestyle and innovation officer at du, Anthony Shiner, said: "You learn a fair bit when you roll out these technologies - one is how people are using them. While people think often that just giving people access to WiFi is enough, you need to learn they're using data for different reasons. You learn a fair bit about it and you can optimise that experience for the consumer based on what you learn about their behaviours. So, when you go into scale often, you can create a congestion issue or a problem for the experience of the customer if you're not clear about how these things go."

"If you're on the way from the airport to the hotel, often, you're not streaming a video; you're checking in or checking messages. If you are in a long transit and you've got young kids, your demands in a taxi are going to be very different. The speeds that you have and the optimisation of the experience actually come with what the place and time is. The more you have, the more you learn."

Shiner added that there are many markets around the world where free WiFi is available, however, it comes with "poor experience".

"I think you have to understand what the consumer demands are, because most people just think consumers want a simple WiFi access, but that's not always that simple. You need to make sure that the customer is getting a seamless experience," he said.

sarwat@khaleejtimes.com