A summer promo gives free access to over 200 Azure hotspots around Australia, but only if you've got one of Nokia's up-market N-series mobile phones.
While free Wi-Fi in Australia's largest cities remains pretty much a hit-and-miss affair, anyone with a WFi-equipped Nokia N-series phone can grab free wireless access through any handy Azure hotspot for the next few months.
Running from now until the end of January next year, the "Sit, Sip and Surf" promotion arranged by Nokia and Azure Wireless opens up the doors of any Azure hotspot to N-series devices such as the N80, N91, N93 and N95 (the models which Nokia calls ‘multimedia computers' rather than plain old mobile phones).
Saunter up to any Azure hotspot (they're most prominent in shopping centres and cafes), run the WLAN setup wizard on your N-series device, select the Azure access point and you're online, says Nokia.
 Sign of the times: or at least summertime, if you've got an N-series phone and want a free Wi-Fi fix from one of over 200 Azure hotspots |
How does the hotspot know you're using an N-series and not anything else from an iPhone to a notebook? Azure seemed cagey on this point and didn't return our calls, but a Nokia spokesperson said the hotspot is "configured to allow free access to devices that identify themselves as Nokia N-series".
We're presuming the means of this ‘identification' is how the microbrowser on the phone - err, sorry, multimedia computer - presents itself to the hotspot when you hit the hotspot's login page. Rock up with a browser which screams "I'm Internet Explorer!" or "I'm Mozilla!" and you won't get past go. But we're happy for readers to poke around at their nearest Azure hotspot and report back here...