I tried using South Korea's Wi-Fi hotspot "olleh WiFi" for 300 yen a day

Recently, more and more people are taking out rental mobile routers that can be rented at airports when traveling abroad. However, there may be cases such as when you are on a sudden business trip and you cannot make a reservation in time, or when you are planning to make a reservation, the day of your overseas trip ends up. This time, we will introduce a Wi-Fi hotspot service in South Korea that you can use from your own smartphone at a low cost even in such a case.

Purchase a prepaid card at a convenience store

The hotspot service "olleh WiFi", which is being developed nationwide by KT, the largest fixed telecommunications carrier in South Korea, is sold as a prepaid card. It is easy to purchase even for travelers from overseas. By the way, olleh is the same brand name as the company's mobile phone service, and you will often see mobile phone stores with the same name signboards in Korean cities. This olleh WiFi is a service developed by KT, which was originally a state-owned company, so it has a wide nationwide coverage, and hotspots are available all over Korea, such as department stores, shopping malls, railway stations, subway cars, and cafes and small restaurants in the city. unfolding

olleh wifi cannot be used while walking like a mobile phone. However, since the coverage is wide, it can be used sufficiently to check information while riding the subway or at a station, and to connect again at a cafe on the ground and upload photos to social services. Anyway, the feature is that the coverage is wide.

Olleh WiFi requires the purchase of a prepaid access card. The cards are sold at major Korean convenience stores, 7-Eleven, CU (formerly FamilyMart), GS25, Ministop and Buy the Way stores. They are also sold at convenience stores in the arrival lobby of Incheon International Airport, so you can get them as soon as you arrive in Korea.

The prepaid card costs 3,300 won (approximately 305 yen) for a one-day ticket. A 4-day card that can be used for 1 day for 4 days is also sold for 9,900 won, and in this case, it can be used for about 232 yen per day. If you visit Korea frequently, this is a good deal, but it seems that many stores are out of stock for four days.

Login from a browser at a hotspot

Once you have purchased a prepaid card, you can use the olleh WiFi hotspot to access the SSID from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Just connect to "ollehWiFi". Note that there may be a security-enabled SSID with the same name flying, but be careful because the open ID is the one that connects. Once connected, open your browser and the olleh WiFi homepage will automatically open. The default screen is displayed in English, but you can change it to Japanese by tapping the Language part.

If you tap "Prepaid wifi (PIN) registration" on the right side of the screen, the next screen will be a screen where you can enter the 12-digit PIN code that appears when you scratch the back of the prepaid card you purchased. . You will also need to register your name in romaji, your e-mail address, and your passport number (optional). In addition, if you enter your name and the next screen displays "English", the name input may be in the state before confirmation in Japanese FEP, or half-width spaces may be full-width spaces. Be careful with your input. If that doesn't work, try entering no spaces between your names, or just your last name.

Once you have entered everything, tap the "Next" button at the bottom. After that, the connection will start immediately and you will be able to connect to the Internet. The expiration date is 24 hours from the time of the first connection, and in the case of a 1-day card, it cannot be used at the same time on the next day. If you want to use it from the next day onwards, you can enter the number of another prepaid card on the login screen again.

If you continue to use the same device, even if you leave the hotspot and the Wi-Fi is disconnected, if you move to another hotspot area, it will automatically reconnect to olleh WiFi. it will connect. In metropolitan areas such as Seoul, simply walking around downtown will automatically connect you to different hotspots one after another, making it easy to use as if you were always connected.

Even if you can't rent a mobile router when traveling to Korea, you can use olleh WiFi at 1/10 the rate of international roaming data services with a maximum daily limit of about 3,000 yen. can. How about using it when you travel to Korea?

(Article provided by AndroWire editorial department)