“Brought to you by Telstra”
If you are in the Melbourne CBD this weekend you’ll notice the city has gotten just a little bit brighter. Telstra phone booths all over town are shining beams of light up into the night sky to celebrate the launch of Telstra Air, a new service that transforms the humble public phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot.
I took a walk around the city last night to check out the light installations and capture a glimpse of the light beams with my camera. The night was overcast and all the spotlights reflecting of the cloudy sky looked pretty cool. There were thirty phone boxes lit up all over the city and the lights could be seen from over a block away.
The light beams are to signify that the Telstra phone booth is also now acting as Telstra Air Wi-Fi hotspot, allowing for Telstra home Broadband customers to access their home connection.
Telstra Air is an opt-in service for Telstra Broadband customers. Their home modem becomes a Telstra Air hotspot and in exchange allows them to use their home broadband at thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots across Australia and millions of Fon Spots overseas. It’s a pretty sweet deal! No more maxing out your phone data plan, or struggling to find a cafe with decent Wi-Fi to check your emails or download podcasts when out and about. Just download the Telstra app which automatically connects you to the nearest hot spot.
If you travel a lot, like I do, you know that the cost of data roaming can be prohibitive. Accesssing free Wi-Fi hot spots all over the world through Fon means that there are no nasty surprise excess data bills to deal with when you arrive home. That get’s a big thumbs up from me.
When you are overseas having Wi-Fi access everywhere is so handy. You can check Google maps, Skype or face time with family, book entry tickets and check train schedules all while on the run. No more getting lost (unless you want to of course) or waiting in long queues for tickets because you’ve got it covered!
Check out the overseas Fon coverage map here.
“I was engaged by Telstra to photograph the Telstra Air Launch Night, however the comments I provide here in relation to the event reflect my own views and are not made on behalf of or endorsed by Telstra.”
