Thanks RA,

A most informative article, factual and well researched.

Telstra reveals plans to turn all public payphones into free Wi-Fi hotspots across Australia

[-- Daily Telegraph]

QUOTE: One year after making calls free from all public phones, Telstra will open Wi-Fi from phone booths to everyone

Australia will be covered by a network of 15,000 free wireless internet hotspots as part of a new plan to modernise the country’s payphone network.

One year after making calls free from all public phones, Telstra will open Wi-Fi from phone booths to anyone who wants to use it, rather than just Telstra customers.

And the company said that would include more than 1000 payphones in “disaster-prone” regional areas, where the internet access from a payphone could be used in emergency situations.

Telstra consumer group executive Michael Ackland said the decision to turn all public phone boxes into Wi-Fi hotspots had been made to support vulnerable Australians.

“While a lot of us take connectivity for granted these days, many isolated or vulnerable people, although they may have access to a mobile device, don’t always have the data to be able to connect,” Mr Ackland said.

“Free Wi-Fi has the potential to make a massive difference in their ability to stay connected to family and friends and access essential services.”

About 3000 Telstra payphones would deliver free internet access to anyone who connected to it from Thursday, he said, with “the goal of upgrading our entire payphone network of almost 12,000 payphone over the coming years”.

The free internet service could also be used in natural disasters, with more than 1000 located in high-risk areas within regional Australia.

The company previously added Telstra Air Wi-Fi to phone boxes in 2015, in a service that was only available to Telstra customers who signed up to it.

A Telstra spokesman said the free network would not collect any more information about users than details required by law, and recommended users did not do internet banking or send “sensitive materials” over the network as it was open and not encrypted.

A survey by the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network found 62 per cent of people on low incomes wanted access to free public Wi-Fi, but 31 per cent did not know where to find it.

More than 250,000 of those phone calls were made to emergency services, including triple-zero and Lifeline, while Centrelink became the most dialled service.

I received an email from Telstra about Telstra Air (I don't know what this is, but it seems to be some kind of WiFi thing).


We wanted to let you know about the following update as soon as possible.

From 30 September 2022, how you access Wi-Fi with Telstra is changing.

What does this mean for you?

You will no longer be able to use Telstra Air to access Wi-Fi at any of the following:

- Our payphones (instead, you can access Wi-Fi via Free Telstra Wi-Fi at selected payphones)
- Participating Telstra stores
- Telstra corporate foyers
- Selected office spaces and Telstra exchanges
- Businesses that partner with Telstra in offering Telstra Air Wi-Fi.

What's Next?

We recently announced Free Telstra Wi-Fi at enabled payphones around the country. And as of 2021, standard national and mobile calls are also free of charge from all Telstra payphones.

You can still access free Wi-Fi at selected payphones, and now it's even easier to use, as you'll no longer need to log in to the Telstra Air app to access Free Telstra Wi-Fi.

Alternatively, you may wish to consider another mobile data solution if you want to access the internet when you're not near one of our payphones.

To find your nearest hotspot, simply go to telstra.com.au/find-us

My experience with 'free WIFI', regardless of who is providing it is that it is as slow as a wet week and at times difficult to connect to. I just use my mobile data when I need to communicate.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...

QUOTE: clearly privatisation of public utilities were underway

Interestingly, Russia was way ahead or Australia in privatisation of telecom. This was because of the 'disorderly' collapse of their government in the early 1990s.

Not surprising, one of the new players in Russian telecom was Organised Crime: This had little impact on the 'consumer-experience', much the same as when the Mob ran Las Vegas, also a transparent experience from the tourists' point of view!

I'm currently on a tour around Tasmania and was in Stanley yesterday. The weather was dreadful with extremely heavy rain so I couldn't take a photo but I was pleased to see a 1950s dome top public phone booth still in service outside the Post Office. The booth was in perfect condition so I assume that it must have been restored recently.

...while Centrelink became the most dialled service.

I remember back to the recession we had to have and when the Department of Social Security (Centrelink's predecessor) would instruct customers to reverse-charge calls to them when they'd complain about being on the phone for too long. Instead of installing a 008 number and employing more enquiries staff, DSS would further give people the run around by forcing them to make operator-assisted calls. This was 1994 by the way, not the 1950s.

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A valve a day keeps the transistor away...