Been enjoying the free pink Telstra Wi-Fi hotspots? You’re about to be cut off.
Image: Eva Rinaldi
They were always intended as trial hotspots with, up until now, no defined “end” to their trial status. In a blog post on Telstra’s Exchange Blog, Neil Louise writes that the plan is to cut “free” access to the hotspots progressively from June 15.
During the trial period, more than 1.5 million unique devices connected to the nationwide network. The network will go offline progressively to allow for hotspot upgrades, and when it returns, it will offer “free” access to existing Telstra customers, as well as paid options for other customers, although Telstra’s yet to announce what that pricing will be.
Comments
One response to “Telstra Will Cull Its Free Hotspots From June 15”
I see no issue with this, as mentioned it was always a trial and that trial has now ended.
No doubt people will be up in arms about Telstra just trying to make money, which as a business is their main reason for existing.
Those of us old enough remember when Telstra was part of the PMG. In those days it wasn’t a business, it was a service. So their only reason for existing was to provide telephony to the public (not a profit to their shareholders).
I don’t think privatising it was an improvement.
And the point of this comment is……? Telstra is a publically listed company now.
It wasn’t free mate, the PMG screwed us all mercilessly through truly obscene prices, no competition and a bloated workforce that worked flexitime and had tea breaks that couldn’t give a toss about anyone. It was the public service, not a service. If you think things aren’t better and cheaper now you are dreaming, or more likely a disgruntled ex-PMG employee who got the arse from his cushy, overpaid ineffective job twisting wires together.
Looks like “existing Telstra customers” only applies to Telstra home broadband customers. As a Telstra mobile subscriber (but not home user) I was excited to think I could save some of my fairly limited monthly download limit by using the wi-fi but it seems I am left out of the loop! 🙁
It seems strange that they *wouldn’t* provide this to Telstra Mobile customers, and indeed do everything they can to get them to use it.
In the areas where this has good coverage (The CBDs), there’s also serious spectrum overcrowding at peak times. Shifting some of it to low power, short range wifi seems to make an enormous amount of sense.
And there’s the catch! It’s not free data, it’s more accessing your home broadband allowances.