Do You Want WiFi With That?
It seems that WiFi hotspots have finally begun to apear in Australia - at least I only began to notice after I succumbed to the Cult and bought an iPhone. As you can imagine, my status in the Cult has been jeopardised by signing up with Telstra, which I did less out of a love for Australia's favourite corporate bully and more for the love of things like network coverage and reliability - all of which I failed to get from Vodafone in the preceding months.
One of the other advantages Telstra offers is free access to their network of WiFi hotspots throughout the city. Which sounds good on paper... until you try to use one on an iPhone.
Firstly, you can't help but notice when you've moved into range of a hotspot because your iPhone will constantly pop up invitations to join it. Hotspots like this are usually unsecured in the conventional sense so your iPhone goes ahead and joins the hotspot by default. The trouble is, joining the hotspot isn't enough - you're expected to log in first - something you'd only realise if you were in a browser, which is where the login page shows up. If you're in email or an app, all you get is a whole lot of little circly processing icon and nothing else. As a result, if you don't go to your browser and log in, you have to turn off your phone's WiFi to carry on with 3G - something a friend and fellow Cultist has to do all the time, as he works in the CBD .
A couple of times I've gone ahead and logged in (while my friend spluttered in frustration) because it's free for me. Let's overlook the fact that the login page is clearly not optimised for mobile - the process itself is simple lunacy. First, I have to enter my mobile number into the webpage after which I get an SMS back with a token, which I have to enter into the login page. Only then, do I get to browse.
Clearly the whole thing is intended for laptops and no doubt Telstra is working on a system optimised for mobile, although if they're after a little free consultancy, why can't they tell I'm a Telstra customer from my phone and just authenticate me?
Telstra normally charge for their hotspots, which helps explain the need for authentication (if not its poor execution). But why do places that offer "free" hotspots require you to login and cause the same problems if you don't? I'm talking about cafe chains or multi-national fastfood joints whose normal MO is to make you enter a token from your receipt or (worse) ask at the counter for one. The idea is obviously to make sure you bought something first, but wouldn't it be easier to shoo out people who are taking up a table (and wifi) without eating anything than to make your paying customers jump through hoops to use a supposedly free service?
I suppose that the hotspot might spill out onto the street, but it's just plain petty for the likes of Gloria McStarJacks to obsess over a few kilobytes of internet traffic snatched by passers-by or homeless people.
One of the other advantages Telstra offers is free access to their network of WiFi hotspots throughout the city. Which sounds good on paper... until you try to use one on an iPhone.
Firstly, you can't help but notice when you've moved into range of a hotspot because your iPhone will constantly pop up invitations to join it. Hotspots like this are usually unsecured in the conventional sense so your iPhone goes ahead and joins the hotspot by default. The trouble is, joining the hotspot isn't enough - you're expected to log in first - something you'd only realise if you were in a browser, which is where the login page shows up. If you're in email or an app, all you get is a whole lot of little circly processing icon and nothing else. As a result, if you don't go to your browser and log in, you have to turn off your phone's WiFi to carry on with 3G - something a friend and fellow Cultist has to do all the time, as he works in the CBD .
A couple of times I've gone ahead and logged in (while my friend spluttered in frustration) because it's free for me. Let's overlook the fact that the login page is clearly not optimised for mobile - the process itself is simple lunacy. First, I have to enter my mobile number into the webpage after which I get an SMS back with a token, which I have to enter into the login page. Only then, do I get to browse.
Clearly the whole thing is intended for laptops and no doubt Telstra is working on a system optimised for mobile, although if they're after a little free consultancy, why can't they tell I'm a Telstra customer from my phone and just authenticate me?
Telstra normally charge for their hotspots, which helps explain the need for authentication (if not its poor execution). But why do places that offer "free" hotspots require you to login and cause the same problems if you don't? I'm talking about cafe chains or multi-national fastfood joints whose normal MO is to make you enter a token from your receipt or (worse) ask at the counter for one. The idea is obviously to make sure you bought something first, but wouldn't it be easier to shoo out people who are taking up a table (and wifi) without eating anything than to make your paying customers jump through hoops to use a supposedly free service?
I suppose that the hotspot might spill out onto the street, but it's just plain petty for the likes of Gloria McStarJacks to obsess over a few kilobytes of internet traffic snatched by passers-by or homeless people.
posted by matt at
5:42 PM
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