Back in May, Telstra announced a plan to create one of the world’s largest Wi-Fi networks. Telstra plans to install two million Wi-Fi hotspots across the nation within five years. Officially set to launch next year, Telstra has this morning announced that a trial of the system will begin in November, in more than 1,000 locations across Australia.
The trial isn’t just hitting out of the way places either, Telstra has chosen some of the biggest, busiest and what should be traffic heavy locations across the country. The first trials will be using Wi-Fi access points in payphone sites, including places such as :
- Bourke Street Mall, Melbourne
- Bondi Beach, Sydney
- Rundle Mall, Adelaide
- Queen Street Mall, Brisbane
- Elizabeth Street, Hobart
- Civic Centre, Canberra
- Perth CBD
- Smith Street Mall, Darwin
- Plus key regional locations and holiday destinations
The Wi-Fi access points will be accessible for free until the network launches next year. Once the network is live, there will be a number of ways that users will be able to access the service :
- Telstra home broadband customers with a compatible gateway who join the Wi-Fi community can use their home broadband allowance via domestic hotspots and connect to more than 13 million Fon-enabled hotspots globally.
- Non-Telstra customers and Telstra customres who have not joined the Wi-Fi community will be able to connect to Fon-enabled Telstra Wi-Fi hotspots for a small charge using guest passes.
If you want to learn more about the Telstra Wi-Fi nation initiative, you can head over to their website to register your details.
