Taree locals will be able to trial free Wi-Fi at some of the area's busiest locations, including Victoria Street and Manning Street, near Taree Central shopping centre.

Telstra Country Wide Area general manager for Hunter and Central Coast, Chris Cusack said Telstra's plan to roll out one of the world's largest Wi-Fi networks across the nation is taking shape.

"This trial in Taree is the beginning of our ambition to switch on more than two million hotspots across the nation and give customers the best Wi-Fi experience in and out of the home.

"Anyone in Taree who has a Wi-Fi enabled device can experience the beginnings of Australia's largest Wi-Fi network. Users will be able to find out where their nearest hotspot is on telstra.com and logging on is as simple as accepting the terms and conditions and clicking a single button."

The first Wi-Fi trials will be located at payphone sites in the heart of local communities in metro, regional and rural areas focusing on parts of the community where people congregate and spend time.

Access to Wi-Fi will be free in the trial sites until the network officially launches later this year.

Australians will be able to access Telstra Wi-Fi in a number of ways:

n Telstra home broadband customers with a compatible gateway who join the Wi-Fi community can use their home broadband allowance via domestic hotspots and connect to more than 13 million Fon-enabled hotspots globally.

n Non Telstra customers and Telstra customers who have not joined the Wi-Fi community will be able to connect to Fon-enabled Telstra Wi-Fi hotspots for a small charge using guest passes.

Australians can register their details to receive more information about Telstra Wi-Fi as it's released by heading to www.Telstra.com/wifi.