Life & Technology – 2GB 5th July, 2015

The ACCC this week told Telstra that it should charge wholesale telco customers about 10% less for access to their copper network – meaning that other telcos will likely drop their prices thanks to the flow on effect.

 

So if your ADSL comes from Optus, TPG, iiNet, Exetel or Internode – to name a few – your internet bill should come in a bit cheaper as of September.

 

Ever wish your smartphone would never go flat? Solar Case is the second best thing – a solar powered smartphone battery case that recharges when you're outdoors. Click here for more information.

 

Apple Music launched in Australia this week, with an asking price of AUD$11.99 for a single subscription and AUD$17.99 for a shared subscription with up to six family members. The first three months are free, so if you’re interested, you can give it a pretty long test run.

 

Vodafone is going regional thanks to the Federal Government's Mobile Black Spot Programme. As part of the programme's first round, Vodafone will build 70 new base stations across regional and remote Australia, many of which will be built before the end of 2016. Click here for the base stations' locations.

 

Telstra Air is the new name for Telstra’s national wireless network project, which launched officially on Tuesday. I’m sure you’ve all seen the pink domes attached to payphones – those are Telstra’s Wi-Fi hotspots.

 

Now that that the service has left its seven month free trial, access to the Telstra Air is limited to Bigpond home broadband subscribers for the moment – but not just any Bigpond subscriber. To access Telstra Air, Bigpond subscribers also have to share a little bit of their internet to other Telstra Air users.

 

I had a chat with Andre Iannuzzi – Hisense's Head of Marketing for Australia – this week about the new TVs he's bringing here in the coming weeks and there's plenty of reasons to be excited – for the whole conversation, check out our podcast.