In May last year, Telstra’s Wifi Nation initiative was announced, before the hotspots began going live in November last year, when Telstra switched on their first 250 locations. Today, Telstra has announced that their Wi-Fi Nation trial has ended and it’s time to prepare for the next step.
Neil Louise, Telstra’s Head of Wi-Fi, who has been responsible for the build and rollout of Telstra’s national Wi-Fi network has announced the update on the Telstra Exchange blog. The 1500 active hotspots rolled out over the last 7 months since the trial began will be switched off progressively beginning on the 15th of June, ending the temporary free Wi-Fi which was available to everyone in range of the Pink cubes mounted on top of Telstra pay phones across Australia.
But it’s not the end, just the next step. The Pink cubes will once again become active, once the hotspots are upgraded for the next phase, though the free internet trial has ended. Instead, Telstra customers will be able to use their Telstra home broadband allowances at the hotspots rather than relying on their mobile data quotas.
We’ll be waiting on more updates, but anyone interested in more information can check the Telstra Wi-Fi Nation website
Ahh, another benefit to having Telstra cable for our home internet. That said, I’ve never used a Telstra wifi hotspot.
at least they should make it free for Telstra mobile customers!
I wonder if the 1500 hotspots which were launched in April will be allowed to stay free access, till November?
Thanks Telstra. This is just another slap in the face since Telstra was privatised. Sydney city has no free public WiFi provided by council. I was in Brisbane over the weekend. The council had free wifi hotspots in several places. The trains have free there for goodness sake. So Telstra has gotten so folks use to there WiFi hotspot and will now charge you for them. It’s like the dealer who gives the first hit for free.
It was always going to be a bait and switch event….. shocked, not shocked…
Huh? So it’s Telstra’s fault that Sydney has no free WiFi but Brisbane does? The USO doesn’t extend to providing free WiFi access in Australian cities. Would you have been happier if they’d charged you during the trial period instead of giving it away for free?
Can’t complain that a company is no longer giving away free stuff.