Telstra to cast wide net of Wi-Fi hotspots

The network will allow Telstra customers to draw on their home broadband allowance when out and about, rather than using more expensive options like mobile data. Photo / Thinkstock

Telstra plans to draw on its millions of broadband and NBN customers to create a huge network of Wi-Fi hotspots.

Australia's biggest telco will officially switch on its Wi-Fi network, Telstra Air, on Tuesday with 4000 hotspots, mostly converted payphones, in 250 cities and towns.

The network will allow Telstra customers to draw on their home broadband allowance when out and about, rather than using more expensive options like mobile data.

But the company plans to spread the network far wider by using its customers' modems: Telstra has about 2.6 million internet customers, more than one million of whom have modems capable of becoming hotspots.

"The real strength comes from home customers joining our network and converting their home gateway to become part of the network and we expect that to become millions [of hotspots]," said Telstra's networks general managing director, Mike Wright.

"Every customer then becomes part of what's called 'the community', they contribute to it and they get something back because the more people that join the community, the more places they get to use their own broadband on the move."

The idea is that when customers sign up to access their broadband allowance away from home, they agree to share a portion of their modem's bandwidth with other Telstra users.

That means a Telstra customer walking past a fellow Telstra customer's home can log on to Telstra's network using the home's modem while still drawing on their own broadband allowance.

But Telstra says the move won't hurt home internet speeds. "We've put controls in place to make sure your own experience at home is still of very good quality. If there would be too much bandwidth consumed then your hotspot wouldn't even be shown," said the telco's group managing director of consumer and products, Karsten Wildberger.

Telstra has also partnered with global Wi-Fi provider Fon to let customers use their home allowance when overseas. The move will give members access to 15 million hotspots in 18 countries including the UK, Spain, Brazil, France and Germany.

- AAP