Telstra Air is Telstra Wi-Fi network installed at thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots across Australia (and millions more overseas) and was officially launched in June 2015, followed by some light show in Melbourne and a small dinner celebration with the Telstra Air team.
When you see a Telstra public payphone around Australia, there is a higher chance you will also see a small box on top of it with a Wi-Fi symbol (meaning, there is a Telstra Air Wi-Fi access point there that you can connect to and use).
Previously, you can only connect to Telstra Air if you are a Telstra Broadband customer (which will use your monthly data allowance), which made some of us sad. I’m on the Wondercom FTTB Fiber-To-The-Building (formerly TPG’s) connection installed in my apartment so I’ve been missing all the fun.
Thanks to the news earlier this morning, Telstra has now made their Wi-Fi access point totally FREE for the next 6 months and it’s now also free to mobile customers (i.e those on Telstra network) and other Telstra services, except for those on BigPond and Satellite mobile broadband plans (source: Finder).
To see if you are eligible, head off to Telstra Wi-Fi Hotspot page with your mobile phone to confirm and apply for a Telstra ID if you haven’t got one yet. Don’t forget to turn your Wi-Fi off first so it can detect that you are on the Telstra network.
It’s not yet certain what will happen after 6 months – whether it will stay free (extended), or whether Telstra Air will still be offered to mobile customers.
The Free Telstra Air offer is valid until 30 June 2016 at the moment.
But for now, I’m really happy to be on the Telstra Pre-Paid network as it also has lots of other perks and now I can read news or watch some Corgi videos without worrying about my mobile data usage while having lunch.
