We don’t have enough free public Wi-Fi in Australia, so I’m all for this: Optus will be offering a free Wi-Fi service on the grounds at the Australian Open, which kicks off in Melbourne on January 16.
Picture by Sascha Wenninger
The Wi-Fi service will be available to everyone, but Optus will be offering a fillip for its existing customers: free streaming of Seven’s TV coverage to Optus 3G mobiles, using either dedicated iPhone and Android apps or the Optus Zoo portal. Nice if you’re a tennis nut. (Optus had a similar arrangement last year.)
Dave
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 12:50 PMYo dawg, we herd you like tennis, so we put tennis in ur phones, so you can watch tennis while you’re at the tennis.
nightFlarer
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 2:48 PMHahaha!
John Boxall
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 5:10 PMThat’s pretty smart for Optus, get all the smartphones off the 3G network in order to minimise network congestion at the large event.
Glenn
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 6:36 PMMostly. The Optus app with streaming will need you to be on 3G to be able to identify that you’re with Optus, so depending on how many people stream it (or how many people don’t bother with the free Wi-Fi) it could still be a little congested during peak times.
Markk
Monday, January 16, 2012 at 9:59 AMMost events I go to means there is no Optus reception. At Soundwave you can always tell what company a user is with. The ones talking on a phone are Telstra customers and the ones walking around scratching their head are Optus/Virgin customers