iTnews
  • Home
  • News
  • Technology
  • Telco/ISP

Telstra offers free trial for first 1000 wi-fi hotspots

By Allie Coyne on Nov 19, 2014 11:25AM
Telstra offers free trial for first 1000 wi-fi hotspots

To lure new home broadband customers.

Telstra customers and non-customers alike will free get access to the first 1000 hotspots switched on as part of a limited trial of the telco's $100 million national wi-fi network. 

Telstra in May announced plans to invest more than $100 million into a national wi-fi network involving 8000 Telstra-built hotspots in public phone booths around the country and 1.9 million wi-fi access points provided by its customers.

The network will also include 12 million hotspots outside Australia thanks to a partnership with wi-fi provider Fon.

Once officially launched, the network will only be free to Telstra home broadband customers. Anyone else will be charged a "small" fee to access the network.

However, Telstra has decided to offer access to the first 1000 hotspots - located in Sydney's Hyde Park, Bondi Beach and Manly, Melbourne's Bourke St Mall and King George Square in Brisbane, among others - free of charge for a limited trial period.

The telco made the announcement while switching on the first 150 sites today. The remaining 850 will be activated before Christmas. Users can locate their nearest hotspot using a dedicated website.

For the trial period - which will run until the "end of summer" - any mobile device user will be able to log on to the network free of charge for a 30 minute session. No data cap will be imposed, Telstra said.

Given the open nature of the network, the telco urged users not to use the hotspots to engage in any data transfer that could be considered sensitive, such as mobile banking.

The telco said it was working on implementing a security solution for the national wi-fi network, but said it would not be available until around the second quarter of next year.

Telstra hopes the free trial will attract new customers to the Telstra network, director of fixed broadband and bundles Stuart Bird said.

The telco also faces the challenge of enticing its home broadband users to share a portion of their bandwidth with other Telstra broadband customers in order to make up the remaining 1.9 million hotspots it wants to offer around the country.

Those who join the “wi-fi community” will be able to use their broadband allowance at no extra charge across the network.

To lure home broadband users onto the network, Telstra said it had started offering the necessary Gateway Max product - normally valued at $210 - as a default inclusion in selected new home broadband bundles.

"We are preparing our home broadband customers now with the inclusion of the Gateway Max modem with our bundles that launched a few weeks ago," Bird said.

Got a news tip for our journalists? Share it with us anonymously here.
Copyright © iTnews.com.au . All rights reserved.
Tags:
hotspottelco/isptelstrawifi

Partner Content

Why rethinking your CMS is crucial for customer retention
Promoted Content Why rethinking your CMS is crucial for customer retention
Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Promoted Content Avoiding CAPEX by making on-premise IT more cloud-like
Security: Understanding the fundamentals of governance, risk & compliance
Promoted Content Security: Understanding the fundamentals of governance, risk & compliance
Why Genworth Australia embraced low-code software development
Promoted Content Why Genworth Australia embraced low-code software development

Sponsored Whitepapers

Extracting the value of data using Unified Observability
Extracting the value of data using Unified Observability
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Planning before the breach: You can’t protect what you can’t see
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
Beyond FTP: Securing and Managing File Transfers
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
NextGen Security Operations: A Roadmap for the Future
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership
Video: Watch Juniper talk about its Aston Martin partnership

Events

  • Micro Focus Information Management & Governance (IM&G) Forum 2022
  • CRN Channel Meets: CyberSecurity Live Event
  • IoT Insights: Secure By Design for manufacturing
  • Cyber Security for Government Summit
  • Forrester Technology & Innovation Asia Pacific 2022
By Allie Coyne
Nov 19 2014
11:25AM
0 Comments

Related Articles

  • Pilbara Ports Authority to deploy private 4G network
  • ACCC towers inquiry open for submissions
  • Telstra boosts optical links to 400 Gbps
  • Optus brands Telstra-TPG deal 'uniquely one-sided'
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on LinkedIn Share on Whatsapp Email A Friend

Most Read Articles

Australia scraps digital passenger cards for international arrivals

Australia scraps digital passenger cards for international arrivals

PayTo rollout kicks off

PayTo rollout kicks off

Neobank Volt exits the banking industry

Neobank Volt exits the banking industry

Westpac sets sights on hybrid meeting spaces

Westpac sets sights on hybrid meeting spaces

Digital Nation

Personalisation strategies need to be built from the ground up
Personalisation strategies need to be built from the ground up
Case Study: Multicloud business drivers at MLC Life Insurance
Case Study: Multicloud business drivers at MLC Life Insurance
Case Study: Good360 deploys NetSuite, Magento and Salesforce
Case Study: Good360 deploys NetSuite, Magento and Salesforce
Case study: AFL kicks goals with its new digital platform
Case study: AFL kicks goals with its new digital platform
Case Study: EY invests in AI to improve approach to flexible working
Case Study: EY invests in AI to improve approach to flexible working
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed in any form without prior authorisation.
Your use of this website constitutes acceptance of nextmedia's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.