Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 15 September 2008 12:03
Your IT -
Mobility
Page 1 of 2
iPhone owners who are in range of over 100 Internode hotspots across
many places in South Australia (with a few also sprinkled in NSW, VIC,
QLD and the NT) are being given the gift simpler free Wi-Fi access. If
you’re in range – sweet!
Even though most iPhone plans in Australia come with relatively large amounts of data, not every iPhone plan actually comes with data, and some of the lower plans have rather paltry amounts of offer.
So, when an ISP sets about offering free Wi-Fi to iPhone users who are in range of one of its Wi-Fi hotspots, numbering more than 100 across four states and one territory, it’s always a welcome development.
Accessing the Internet using Mobile Safari or giving your iPhone apps access to data via Wi-Fi is a great way to cut down on 2G or 3G data usage which you’ll otherwise need to pay for.
That data usage could be for email (whether through MobileMe or not), Google Maps, Stocks and Weather.
The free data won't work with YouTube, the App Store or iTunes, with Internode offering the following explanation (I called to find out):
"Re. your question about AppStore & iTunes, the unmetered iPhone access is only for extended services that come direct from Apple servers such as Google Maps, MobilleMe and stock quotes, weather etc. The unmetered access excludes AppStore and iTunes because these use a different type of service, as they are delivered by content distribution servers."
However Simon Hackett, Internode CEO has subsequently written to iTWire to further clarify:
"To further clarify - the Appstore, iTunes store etc are available in Internode Hotspots too, you just need to fire up Safari and click log in to use them.
"The key to the release today is that all those other nifty things your iPhone does for you (including in the background, with the new push functionality in 2.x) will all now work without needing to bother to fire up Safari to do that at all - meaning things like push updates to calendars, contacts etc will happen while you sip your coffee, and all without costing you precious 3G data quota from your mobile provider.
"The point here is that if you allow the iPhone to roam into a wifi area without Internet access, and for which this sort of automatic access to MobileMe hasn't been enabled, the push functions are actively blocked as a result - which is the last thing you'd want :)
"Hence this initiative.
"Simon"
Now, clearly, Internode’s generosity isn’t a panacea for all iPhone (and iPod Touch) users – you’ll need to be in range of a hotspot, which is usually located in a cafe, restaurant, airport, hotel or other business, and given the fact that Internode is headquartered in South Australia, most of its hotspots are located there.
That said, Internode say they are building a “nationwide hotspot network”, with details of coverage available on the hotspot
coverage page of the Internode website.
Internode aren’t the only ISP offering free iPhone Wi-Fi either – for example, Telstra offers it to its iPhone customers on an iPhone plan, while
TomiZone-enabled hotspots are also offering free data to iPhone users who are in range.
Because Internode normally requires users to log-in for free access (whether through the iPhone or a Wi-Fi equipped notebook), this was fine for surfing using Safari on the iPhone, but played havoc with iPhone services like the weather app or others that aren’t accessed through a browser.
Luckily for iPhone users, Internode has implemented a simple solution. Please read on to page 2.
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