To apologise for their massive internet outages, Telstra offered all their customers a free data day on Valentines day. One man by the name of John Szaszvari went way overboard, taking advantage of the free data to the tune of $10,000 or over a terabyte of data.
Now Telstra have reached out to Szaszvari, inviting him to come into their testing lab to help test new wireless technology – faster than anything currently available in Australia.
Although Szaszvari had recently stated that he wouldn’t ever go and work for Telstra, it seems he has accepted the offer. “They mentioned to me they wanted to get me to test out the speeds, to try and push it to the limit so they can see what happens on their end.” he told news.com.au – “Quite frankly it sounds absolutely amazing. If they can pull off what they’re developing.”
A spokesperson for Telstra has suggested that Szaszvari will be involved in testing a new mobile broadband hotspot that will deliver speeds of up to 1Gbps (1000 megabits per second) before it is made available to customers.
“The device will be the first of its kind in the world and should be capable of speeds around three times faster than his current phone,” said the spokesperson. “We want to make sure our customers have the best possible experience, so if our customers are not happy with their current service we always ask them to reach out to us to see how we can improve their experience on Australia’s largest network.”
Telstra have also said that the technology won’t be available for testing for a few months yet, but that they “are sure John will be able to test the modem to its full capacity”.
Although it would seem that Szaszvari has done a backflip on his relationship with the company, he still contends that the telco has various areas in which they’re not up to scratch. “It doesn’t mean they’re the best company in Australia, they’re ridiculously expensive, their customer service is non-existent pretty much, and going into a Telstra store is quite possibly one of the most painful things you could do in your life,” he said. “None of this would have ever happened if I had working, consistent internet in my house.”
Here’s hoping he gives the new technology a full work out, although Telstra have not yet given any indication when the new speeds may be available to the public.
