Following in the spiritual footsteps of cities like New York, Telstra is re-inventing its payphones strewn across Australia, turning some of them into Wi-Fi hotspots as part of its massive bid for nationwide Wi-Fi coverage.
Currently there are 35,000 payphones in Australia, according to the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. Telstra owns 18,900 of these and the remaining 16,100 are placed by private businesses in hotels, shopping centres and busy districts.
Telstra today launched a trial of 1000 new Wi-Fi hotspots that will be switched on in November for the Christmas crush in Australia’s tourist hubs. Part of the trial involves converting some of Telstra’s payphones into WiFi hotspots that will temporarily allow all users to access the internet using smartphones and tablets free of charge.
The sites launched today include Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall, Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall and Perth’s central business district. Telstra said the maximum range of the hotspots will be between 30 and 50 metres, so customers will need to stay relatively close to get the Wi-Fi signal.
This will form part of the $100 million Wi-Fi hotspot network Telstra announced in May. The company will build 8000 of its own hotspots while partnering with retail stores and local governments to get 2 million hotspots around the country. After the trial period, the Wi-Fi hotspots will only be free for Telstra fixed-line internet customers with others paying a fee to use it.
“Access to Wi-Fi will be free in the trial sites until the network officially launches early next year,” Telstra said in the statement.
“The new hotspots will allow [Australians] to browse the internet, check emails or upload photos to social media when they are sitting at a café, shopping in retail stores, or waiting for the bus, train or tram in range of a hotspot.”
Telstra has been relatively slow in converting its payphone network to WiFi hotspots with the option already available in New Zealand, New York City and London.