Want a free trial of the start of Telstra’s new national hotspot network in places like Hyde Park in Sydney, Bourke Street Mall in Melbourne or King George Square in Brisbane?
From today, you can, with Telstra Retail’s main man, Gordon Ballantyne stating: “This trial marks the beginning of our ambition to switch on more than two million hotspots across the nation over 5 years and give customers the best Wi-Fi experience in and out of the home.”
“Today we are also confirming the next hotspot locations set to go live ahead of Christmas, bringing the number of trial sites to 1000. We have selected towns, regional hubs and holiday destinations where we know people will be spending time this holiday season.”
Payphones were once destined for the scrap heap, but they’re the location Telstra’s Wi-Fi hotspots will be broadcasting from - as well as from people’s homes in the future.
That will be when those customers upgrade to the latest Telstra Wi-Fi router and elect to securely share part of their connection with others, in return for getting access to other Telstra Wi-Fi hotspot or connection sharers, with that customer’s own broadband allocation being used.
Telstra will also have hotspots in its own stores and exchanges in the future.
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If you’re worried about security, we advise you to use a VPN so your traffic can’t be snooped by others using the same hotspot. Also be sure to select ‘public’ if you’re using a Windows PC and are asked what kind of Wi-Fi connection it is you want, with the choices normally ‘Home’, ‘Work’ or ‘Public’.
Most people won’t bother doing that, but it’s certainly advised for business users. You can use a VPN with your smartphone or tablet as well - just search for VPN in Google and you’ll find a huge range of quality paid VPNs to choose from.
Telstra has announced a range of locations where the first 1000 free trial hotspots will be switched on by Christmas 2014, and these include:
NSW:
The Rocks, Hyde Park and Bondi in Sydney are on now, with Telstra informing us that ‘another 35 locations across Sydney will come online before Christmas.’
Other NSW locations include:
Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Byron Bay, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Gosford, Katoomba, The Entrance, Manly, Newcastle, Orange, Parramatta, Penrith, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Wollongong and Wagga Wagga.
VIC:
Bourke St Mall, Lygon Street, and St Kilda in Melbourne are on now, with Telstra saying ‘another 45 locations across Melbourne will come online before Christmas.’
Other VIC locations include:
Apollo Bay, Ballarat, Bendigo, Dandenong, Frankston, Geelong, Lakes Entrance, Phillip Island, Shepparton, Mildura, Mornington, Ocean Grove and Wonthaggi.
ACT:
In the ACT, you’ll have Canberra (presumably the city centre), Griffith, Kingston and Phillip.
NT:
In the NT this includes:
Alice Springs, Darwin City, Fannie Bay, Katherine, Stuart Park and The Gap.
QLD:
In QLD, Brisbane City, Fortitude Valley, New Farm and West End are on now, with ‘another 25 locations across Brisbane to come online before Christmas.’
Other QLD locations include:
Cleveland, Surfers Paradise, Broad Beach, Mermaid Beach, Coolangatta, Toowoomba, Noosa Heads, Rockhampton, Townsville, Cairns and Port Douglas.
SA:
Locations to come online include:
Adelaide CBD, North Adelaide, Port Adelaide, Glenelg, Norwood, Victor Harbour and Barossa.
WA:
Locations to come online include:
Perth CBD, Vincent, Claremont, Fremantle, Rockingham, Bunbury, Margaret River and Broome.
TAS:
Locations to come online include:
Hobart, Launceston, Cambridge and Devonport.
