The high-speed wireless service, based on the 802.11b standard, is available at eight locations in Sydney, five locations in Melbourne and one location in Brisbane. The 'hotspots' are mostly at Delifrance and Hudsons stores. In April Optus plans to extend the reach of the network to 20 Gloria Jeans stores in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.
Optus plans to collaborate with other organisations, such as Air Portal and Brisbane Airport, in the coming months.
"In the next few months we expect to offer Australian WiFi users roaming services onto our 150 hotspots in Singapore as well as be able to connect them to thousands of locations across North America, Europe, and Asia," said Allen Lew, managing director of Optus Mobile.
"While our focus is on business users, WiFi savvy consumers won't miss out," said Lew. "They can tap into our hotspot locations across the country, with an easy set-up and "pay as you go" fee structure."
The Optus Wireless Connect Casual plan has an establishment charge of AU$13.20 with one included hour, and an excess usage rate of AU$12.10 per hour.
At the other end of the scale, the Optus Wireless Connect Gold plan has no establishment fee, a Monthly Access fee of AU$49.50 with five included hours, and an excess usage rate of AU$9.90 per hour.
Nobody at Optus has a clue about that. I called them after respectable 2 weeks delay and after numerous redirections they allocated a "business account manager" to me who at the end of the day tried to sell me GPRS instead.
Is this article a 1 April Fool's Day stunt?