Telstra claims world’s first remote iPhone 7 delivery
One Northern Territorian didn’t have to queue for his iPhone 7.
It’s iPhone 7 launch day, and while the queues outside Apple’s flagship Sydney store weren’t quite up to the highs of years gone by, there’s still been a fair amount of buying frenzy in metropolitan phone shops today as customers sought out Apple’s latest premium phone.
In the country there’s the general perception that life moves at a slightly slower pace than that for better or worse. That could probably explain why publican Les Pilton of Barrow Creek, NT was, up until this morning still using a truly ancient 2G Nokia handset, although he was on borrowed time with that device, given the impending 2G network shutdown.
That changed at 8:01 (ACST) when Telstra hand delivered an iPhone 7 to Mr Pilton in a bid to snare the title of the most remote iPhone launch moment. No, we had no idea that this was a title either, and yes, it’s something of a media stunt, albeit a fairly cool one. He wouldn't take the title of first delivered, either, given that central Australian time is half an hour behind the eastern side of the country, although he may have been first in the NT. Also, just to be clear, Telstra isn't about to start hand-delivering iPhones to everyone slightly off the beaten track. Although that would be a very cool sales gimmick if they could pull it off.
Still, the jump from a 2G-capable Nokia Flip phone to an iPhone 7 would be a pretty remarkable one. No word from Telstra as to Mr Pilton’s chosen storage model or plan tier, although we suspect given the relatively harsh nature of the landscape its dust resistance will get a pretty hefty workout.
What’s also fairly impressive here is that in an area that remote, there’s coverage at all. Barrow Creek is the only stop between Alice Springs and Tennant Creek, which means that you could easily describe it as "remote", but Telstra’s coverage maps do show that it’s capable of 4GX coverage within the town itself, something that none of its competitors can boast.
