Telstra Adds Another 1,500 Hotspots To Its National WiFi Initiative

Telstra announced its plans to add another 1,500 hotspots to the rollout of its $100 million national Wi-Fi network and the network will be available for free access until June this year. Australia’s biggest telco, Telstra first unveiled its Wi-Fi initiative in May 2014 and now the telco has 1100 existing hotspots spread across 250 towns and suburbs, as per reports.

According to a report on the Computerworld, Telstra had set aside 1000 sites for the initial trial and as per the company’s latest plans, it would add Wi-Fi to its 80 retail stores. Telstra is also focused on expanding the Wi-Fi network to the rural areas. Gordon Ballantyne, Group Executive, Telstra Retail said Geelong Advertiser, ‘remote places like Mount Gambier and Whitsundays will connect more than 250 towns and suburbs.’ As Telstra aims to crowdsource the next 500 premises, the company wants users to respond as in where they would want the free Wi-Fi.

Ballantyne said, the company wants the community to participate in the rollout process by letting the company know where it should be switching on the new 500 premises. “We are asking Australians to go to tel.st/newwifination and pick their preferred location from the list so we know which hotspot locations will really help people connect in regional areas around Australia,” the Geelong Advertiser quoted Ballantyne, as saying.

The Wi-Fi network was switched on in November last year and since then more than 270 TB of data has been downloaded. Once the full network is launched, customers will be required to sign up to become a member of the network after which they can access more than 3,500 Wi-Fi hotspots, residential hotspots created by other members and more than 14 million hotspots across the world, reports Geelong Advertiser.

After the success of free Wi-Fi trial in November last year, Telstra is moving on to an additional 1,500 hotspots with the free trial period effective till June 2015. According to a ZDNet report, Telstra will launch its paid service once the free public Wi-Fi trial period comes to an end. Non-Telstra customers will have to pay for accessing the network.

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