Property management company Scentre Group and telco Optus have announced a partnership that will offer Westfield shoppers a new level of digital connectivity, with a national rollout of a state-of-the-art WiFi service across 21 Westfield shopping centres.

The rollout will commence this month, making Westfield shopping centres across the country more digitally enabled, improving the customer experience with a free, fast, easy to use WiFi service for all shoppers. The service provides shoppers with up to 1GB of data free for a three hour period each day and will be accessible across the entire common mall area.

The national rollout follows two successful pilots in October 2014 at the newly redeveloped Westfield Miranda, NSW and Westfield Garden City, QLD. The free service attracted almost 3,000 sessions on average per day at each centre, and lengthened the average stay in-centre with shoppers who used the service staying 12% longer than those who did not.

“We are focused on creating the best customer experiences within our shopping centres with digital connectivity a key priority. This new service is another example of where we are investing to improve the customer experience through innovation” said Scentre Group CEO, Peter Allen.

Optus Business is providing the WiFi solution, in partnership with Aruba and SkyFii, to implement the rollout and manage the service for Scentre Group. The service will also provide advanced location analytics and will enable the provision of personalised content for subscribers.

“This partnership represents two respected and renowned Australian brands working together to deliver innovative customer experience initiatives. Like Westfield, Optus is committed to delivering the best possible customer experience, so the opportunity to provide a differentiated digital experience for customers, in addition to showcasing our technology expertise, is very exciting for us,” said John Paitaridis, managing director, Optus Business.

The Westfield WiFi service, powered by Optus, will be rolled out to the following centres in 2015:

1. Westfield Belconnen, ACT
2. Westfield Bondi Junction, NSW
3. Westfield Burwood, NSW
4. Westfield Carousel, WA
5. Westfield Chatswood, NSW
6. Westfield Chermside, QLD
7. Westfield Garden City, QLD – completed
8. Westfield Hornsby, NSW
9. Westfield Innaloo, WA
10. Westfield Kotara, NSW
11. Westfield Tuggerah, NSW
12. Westfield Liverpool, NSW
13. Westfield Southland, VIC
14. Westfield Tea Tree Plaza, SA
15. Westfield Warringah, NSW
16. Westfield Miranda, NSW – completed
17. Westfield Parramatta, NSW
18. Westfield Whitford City, WA
19. Westfield Geelong, VIC
20. Westfield Helensvale, QLD
21. Westfield Sydney – Myer side, NSW

The partnership will be for an initial five-year term.