Telstra and Fon Start Rolling Out Telstra Air to Blanket Australia with WiFi
JUNE 26 2015. SYDNEY & MADRID.- Fon, the global WiFi network and Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications provider, have commenced the roll-out of the Telstra Air WiFi network across Australia.
From next Tuesday onwards, eligible Telstra home broadband customers will be able to activate the service to access their home broadband allowance at thousands of hotspots across the country, and millions more in 18 countries including the UK, Spain, Brazil, Japan, France and Germany. At the same time, international Fon members will be able to connect at all Fon enabled hotspots in Australia.
Karsten Wildberger, Telstra’s Group Managing Director of Consumer and Products said: “The network will be brought to life by us and by our customers who can enjoy greater value from their broadband service by accessing their allowance outside the home. We expect it will grow rapidly reaching thousands of neighbourhoods and millions of people across the country over the next five years”.
The network is being created using innovative WiFi sharing technology from Fon that’s being embraced by millions of people in Europe and other parts of the world. It works by customers sharing a small portion of their home internet bandwidth in exchange for using their own home broadband allowance at hotspots across the nation and overseas.
Alex Puregger, Fon CEO, said: “After months of hard work, it’s great to see that our network is finally expanding over Australia. I am glad people from both sides of the planet are using the same Fon technology to be connected at home and on the go.”
Telstra Air will be available from next Tuesday in more than 250 towns and cities across Australia at residential areas, payphone sites and retail outlets in popular locations. Millions of Telstra home broadband customers can become a Telstra Air member at no additional charge provided they have a compatible gateway.
More information about Telstra Air is available at www.telstra.com/wifi
About Fon
Fon was founded in February 2006 by serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky with the goal of blanketing the world with WiFi. Today the company is a global WiFi leader with more than 15 million hotspots. Fon has offices in Madrid, London, Tokyo and New York. The company has partnerships with top telcos in all continents: BT (UK), Deutsche Telekom (Germany, Croatia and Romania), JT (Jersey Island), KPN (Netherlands), KT (South Korea), MWEB (South Africa), Netia (Poland), NOS (Portugal), Oi (Brazil), OTE (Greece), Proximus (Belgium), SFR (France), SoftBank (Japan), Telstra (Australia), Vodafone (Spain and Italy) and Wireless Gate (Japan). Innovating in the WiFi industry is part of Fon´s DNA. Our vision is to be “always on, always on the move”. For more information, please visit fon.com
About Telstra:
Telstra is Australia’s leading telecommunications and information services company, offering a full range of communications services in all telecommunications markets. We believe the more connected people are, the more opportunities they have. That’s why we help create a brilliant connected future for everyone, everyday.
™ is a trademark of Telstra Corporation Limited.