Telecom New Zealand is launching a nationwide WiFi service piggybacking on its legacy network of pay-phone booths. 700 hotspots will be live by 7 October with a target of 2000 by the middle of 2014 – and Telecom New Zealand customers on monthly plans and on NZ$19 and NZ$29 prepaid packs will get 1Gb a day of data free. Other users can access the WiFi network for NZ$9.95 a month and Telecom is working on a range of other pricing plans. Telecom Retail chief executive Chris Quin said that the conversions will help to make customers’ mobile data go further and make broadband access more pervasive. It will also clearly make Telecom customers more sticky and possibly entice some to switch from competitors. “We want to encourage our customers to use as much data as possible, because we know how the smartphone applications and services they’re using are at the very centre of the way people now live, work and play,” Quin said.

In 2012 New York City also implemented this same system with free wifi at payphones. I think this is an extremely inventive idea, need wifi just look for a payphone!