Taipei’s City Government has launched a voice over wifi trial it believes could lead to 200,000 using the technology by year end.

Dubbed ‘Taipei Easy Call’ the service is based on Taipei’s city-wide “WiFly” WLAN network and is backed by ten companies, including the Taipei Computer Association (TCA).

The idea is to saturate Taipei with wifi hot spots enabling those taking part in the trial to switch from regular cellular networks to wifi when a signal is available.

“This is the world’s first internet phone system using the whole city, rather than a spot, as a wireless operation environment,” Mr Wongg of the TCA told AFP news agency.

According to reports the initiative will also involve switching schools and government offices to VoIP.

Taipei’s mayor, Ma Ying-jeou, said that money saved from using the internet telephony system in schools will help provide better lunches for students.