Telstra to spend $100m building national wi-fi network
Telstra has announced it will create one of the world’s largest wi-fi networks, spending more than $100 million to build some two million hotspots in a move that will target both its own customers and the broader public.
The move, which will dramatically shake up the Australian wi-fi market, will likely also be a new source of revenue and user data for the telco which says it hopes to have the network up and running within five years.
In a statement, Telstra CEO David Thodey claimed it would be a major game changer for the evolving wi-fi market, allowing “our customers the unique option to seamlessly use their home broadband allowance inside and outside the home.”
The network is scheduled to launch in early 2015 and according to the announcement will also offer overseas access to wi-fi at more than 12 million international hotspots, as part of an exclusive deal recently concluded with global wi-fi provider Fon.
This is not the answer. Unless the interface for joining wifi is changed (it won’t), nobody with decent data on their plan will bother.
how about they come sort it out in Darlinghurst first….
Can’t see it working and the coverage will be poor and probably not as good as the mobile network, especially in rural areas
@Tlux – disagree. The main benefit here is being able to use wifi when out and about which is a pretty cool feature imho.
If you like me like to stream videos & music & foxtel etc on the go, this saves you chewing up data allowance on your mobile plan (1GB) which is very small compared to home broadband allowance (100GB) which is never used.
A more customer friendly and immediate solution would be for Telstra to combine data allowance on home internet and mobile. As mobile allowances sometimes are insufficient, but home broadband is never used up. But this would probably reduce some telstra revenue and telstra are not known for being teh customer’s best friend
Why so cynical? Sounds like a great idea. If, while out and about, it is a choice between using the 1.5 gig on my mobile (which costs a fortune) or being able to use my 200 gig on my home plan (which costs bugger all), then it’s a no brainer.
The fuck am I going to allow someone to join my home network. Anyone that allows this can go whistle when their private information is in the ether.