Published on the 21/05/2014 | Written by Beverley Head
Telstra has announced plans to spend $100 million creating a wi-fi network made up of two million hotspots in the next five years – the devil however may yet prove to be in the detail…
Customers of Telstra’s fixed broadband service (individuals and small businesses) are being offered the chance to become part of Telstra’s network of two million wi-fi hotspots. By signing onto the scheme and investing in a new gateway and range extender (which will cost $210) existing Telstra customers become a de facto hotspot in the network by sharing some of their bandwidth. In return they are allowed to access for free their broadband allowance through the wi-fi network.
Telstra itself is only committing to build 8000 wi-fi hotspots; it’s not so much building a wi-fi network as crowdsourcing it (and getting your customers to fork out for the capital equipment).
The wi-fi service will be open to non-Telstra users for a daily fee, although how much that will be has not yet been announced. It won’t initially be available to Telstra’s mobile broadband customers though that is planned for the future.
From a marketing perspective it’s a canny move. Telstra builds loyalty among its user base which can enjoy the benefit of anywhere anytime access to the internet. This also extends internationally as Telstra this week also announced it had inked a deal with Fon, providing access to 12 million international hotspots.
What’s yet to be demonstrated is the technical capability of the planned network. Telstra’s assuring customers that they will remain secure even if they opt in and allow their home or business connection to be co-opted into the wi-fi network; it’s also confident that people won’t suffer any slowdown in services.
That may well be the case in the major metropolitan areas – but it’s as yet unclear how far into regional and remote Australia Telstra’s grand wi-fi vision can sensibly extend.
With the network scheduled to launch early next year Telstra CEO, David Thodey said the company would partner with councils, business enterprises and governments on the initiative – but the focus is on the largest cities and regional centres.
As to the use scenarios, Telstra’s already thinking big picture. “The opportunities go beyond connecting people.
“The city-wide availability of wi-fi coupled with the growth in the internet of things can help us improve the way we live in cities. Town planning, sustainability, traffic management, maintenance, public safety and the provision of government services are just some of the challenges that can be tackled by connecting sensors and objects with networks,” according to Thodey.
