Telstra’s forgotten public phone booths will be given an added function as Wi-Fi hotspots as part of a plan to blanket public spaces with internet access.
Trials of the $100m project will be up and running by November and will allow Telstra customers who agree to share their bandwidth to get free access to any hotspot. The data they use will be deducted from their home allowance.
Non-Telstra customers, and those who don’t share their home connection, will be able to connect for an as yet undisclosed fee.
The first 100 of the planned two million hotspots will be available for free on a trial basis within weeks, said Telstra’s group executive of retail, Gordon Ballantyne, on Tuesday. He also revealed that many of the hotspots will be repurposed public phones.