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.

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