Telstra has announced the new Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster, a device that allows customers to extend their wireless coverage to low signal areas in their home or office.
Jana Kotatko, Head of Fixed Products, said the Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster was tailor made for Telstra customers, particularly those with larger homes or rooms that were hard to reach with their modem’s standard Wi-Fi signal.
“The booster, which is the first of its kind to be offered by an Australian provider, is affordable and easy to set up, and features the latest Wi-Fi technology to seamlessly connect household devices to the strongest and fastest Wi-Fi source,” said Ms Kotatko.
“With the NBN now available to more than six million homes and businesses, and the rise of connected devices being used within Australian homes, our customers expect to be able to get online in any area of their property including their yards, garages or even bungalows.”
Telstra is confident in the reliability of their NBN service and has also announced a 30 day NBN satisfaction guarantee which gives customers the freedom to leave Telstra without penalty if they’re not happy with their NBN service.
The Smart Wi-Fi Booster comes in a pack of two, with one booster connecting to the modem and the other placed in another area of the house where the Wi-Fi signal starts to drop off.
Ms Kotatko said the seamless transition between boosters is a key advantage to this home Wi-Fi solution over existing Wi-Fi extenders.
“Many Wi-Fi extenders require a customer to manually choose which Wi-Fi point they want to connect to, or the signal needs to drop out completely before their connection switches over to the extender. This drop in service is enough to cut a call using Voice over Wi-Fi or Skype, make websites much slower to load and cause videos to buffer. With Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster, customers should be able to do all these things with fewer interruptions in more places,” said Ms Kotatko.
Ahead of the launch, Telstra trialled the Wi-Fi Booster in 100 homes and found that the vast majority of participants saw a lift in their Wi-Fi speeds and coverage, with 80% also reporting an improvement in streaming video performance.
“We’ve found customers naturally want to place a booster at the edge of their Wi-FI coverage, but in reality, placing it where the coverage has just started to drop off but is still relatively strong van provide a much better overall experience,” said Ms Kotatko.
“To help make this easier, we’ve updated our free Telstra Home Dashboard app which walks customers through a few simple steps to find the best areas in their home to set up their Smart Wi-Fi Boosters.”
Telstra’s Smart Wi-Fi Booster is also expected to assist the growing number of Australias adopting Smart Home technology helping them to connect devices to Wi-Fi which may not have reached before like an outdoor camera or motion sensor in the garage.
The Telstra Smart Wi-Fi Booster is available for $180 outright or $7.50/month over 24 months at telstra.com/smartwifi or in Telstra stores across the country.
