Aussies double down on Telstra's free data offer

Telstra 4G

Telstra felt really bad for the network outages that plagued its mobile customers last week, so it decided to give all its customers unmetered data for a day. Now that day is done, and Telstra has given us an insight into just how much data was pushed through its tubes. Spoiler: It's a lot.

In a post on its Exchange blog, Telstra's group managing director of Networks, Mike Wright, explained that from the moment the clock struck midnight on Sunday, Telstra's services were hit by increased demand. By 8am, it had hit peak weekday levels, and continued to climb from there.

Over the course of the day, over 1,841 terabytes of data was downloaded across Telstra's mobile customer base, which included pre-and-post-paid customers, business customers, mobile internet and Boost retail customers.

Downloading concerns

That figure apparently represents double the normal Sunday traffic experienced on the Telstra network. The unmetered data initiative survived the load, which is almost definitely what Telstra wanted to show customers.

Given that Telstra charges a premium for its network, it needed to come out swinging following the outage last week. What better way to do that than by showing that even when your entire customer base is downloading whatever they want for free, your network handles the load without issue?

With little effect on overall speed around the country, Telstra will no doubt be considering this exercise a resounding success.

Having spent the past decade editing some of Australia's leading technology publications, Nick's passion for the latest gadgetry is matched only by his love of watching Australia beat England in the rugby.