These days in an ever-connected world one issue many people have when travelling overseas is finding decent data access while avoiding the large roaming fees that most carriers charge. Telstra have been one company renowned for having exorbitant roaming fees overseas, even if you buy a data pack before leaving Australia. In a bid to help customers avoid these fees, they have now teamed up with Fon to offer free Wi-Fi access in over 15 countries worldwide.
Customers who are eligible for Telstra Air can now access global Wi-Fi provider Fon’s 19 million hotspots in more than 15 countries. All the customer has to do it log into the Telstra Air app and connect before they leave Australia. When overseas they devices will then automatically connect to Fon’s Wi-Fi hotspots when in range overseas. Prepaid customers will need to make sure they have an active recharge to be able to access the free Wi-Fi data.
Fon has Wi-Fi hotspots in Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, Spain and the UK. Exact locations of these hotspots can be found via the interactive map on Fon’s website.
While we would prefer some phone providers (not all do) just stopped charging ridiculous amounts for data roaming this is a work around that may be enough for many people. To see if you are eligible for Telstra Air head to the Telstra Air website now. The free offer ends on the 27th March, 2017. For those heading overseas for the holiday period it may be extremely useful and help avoid bill shock while still being able to send all the selfies and Instagram pictures you want.
Yet to find a case where having access to Telstra Air has been a win! Its fairly much just a gimmick at the moment in my experience! It would probably be more useful (although very unpopular with the Tin Hat folks) if it was opt out! That or if they gave some sort of option to have a second site area you could turn on. So, I have Telstra broadband at home. If I could enable an Air Hotspot at my in-laws, that would be a huge win for me and another spot for telstra to market. I think they… Read more »
The reason why I don’t activate Telstra Air on my modem is because I gave up using the Telstra modem as it only supports a single gig Lan connection. Their modems are hopelessly out-of-date with technology home requirements.
I’ve tried to use Telstra Air a number of times, but what a joke. Rather than just have it recognise that your number is a Telstra one and just ‘let you in’, you have to go to be eligible, then go to a website, then register, then download an app, then sign-in, then access through the app – or something like that. Telstra are incapable of doing anything without making it convoluted and unnecessary. Telstra Air could easily be a decent network drawcard if they unshackled it and just made it easier to access for their customers, but at the… Read more »