Virgin Mobile offers free mobile charging for Pokemon Go players in Australia

A virtual map of Bryant Park is displayed on the screen as a man plays the augmented reality mobile game "Pokemon Go" by Nintendo in New York City, U.S. July 11, 2016. Reuters/Mark Kauzlarich

Pokemon Go Australian players can now charge their phones for free at Virgin Mobile stores and kiosks around the country. The fourth largest telco in the country is the first to take advantage of the augmented reality mobile game craze.

Following its limited release in Australia, New Zealand and the US on July 6, Pokemon Go has already become the most downloaded app in the three countries, according to Euro Gamer. Players who normally would not step out of their houses have ventured out in the real world to catch these elusive Pokemons.

There are some complaints about the game, including malware and privacy issues and physical safety risks, but perhaps the most common problem all players have encountered is the app’s ability to drain phone batteries rapidly. And this is where Virgin Mobile comes in.

The Optus-owned telco announced on Tuesday that players can now charge their phones for free at any of its 52 stores and kiosks across the country. The chargers come in all shapes and sizes to suit all Android or iOS handsets. It also doesn’t matter if the Pokemon Go player is a Virgin Mobile customer or not, the telco said the chargers are free for use to all gamers.

Virgin Mobile also provides free secure charge lockers in some Westfield shopping centre food courts, perhaps to give hungry Pokemon Go players chance to break for lunch.

Meanwhile, Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs said it is fixing the app’s privacy issue. According to iPhone users, the app was allowed access to some information via their Google account.

“Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google profile information, in line with the data that we actually access,” Niantic Labs told Engadget. “Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokemon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokemon Go’s permission to only the basic profile data that Pokemon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves.”