Had you noticed the giant pink Wi-Fi symbols on top of pay phones that appeared in the first half of this year? The free Wi-Fi you were picking up from the phone booths was just the trial: the official nationwide rollout of Telstra Air was launched today.
Essentially, if you opt-in to Telstra Air, you’ll share “a small part” of your home Wi-Fi with strangers. Then you’ll be able to access the nation-wide Wi-Fi, made up of thousands of hotspots.
Your home Wi-Fi will be split in two, with one frequency band re-broadcast as a Telstra Air hotspot. Other Telstra customers can use it, then you can use theirs. The usage of other people’s home Wi-Fi will come out of your quota obviously, not theirs. Also, you can access Wi-Fi from specific phone booths, shopping centres, sporting stadiums, and public transport hubs.
It is available to people who are not Telstra customers too, for $6.60 for an hour, $10 for a day, or $23 for five days.
Way better idea than Liberal’s NBN, tbh.
via Gizmodo
Image: William West via Getty Images
