At the recent Tech Leaders Forum for 2023, held in the Hunter Valley of NSW, we spoke with Nick Bailey, CEO of the Optus Living Network, about a feature called ‘Optus Pause’ which can pause connectivity across the WiFi, the mobile network or a particular device – at the flick of a button – which comes in very handy at times.
Nick says this is why they built in the ‘Optus Pause’ feature – as a simple way to take a breather from digital distractions and make family time count. Here at Women Love Tech, we can understand this because while we all love being online, staying connected 24/7 can create distractions for ourselves and our families at times and it would be good to be able to take a break every now and then.
Nick talked with Women Love Tech Leaders Forum, saying: “I’m Nick Bailey from the Optus Living Network – and through the Living Network, we’ve pumped out a range of exciting customer innovations over the last couple of years. One of the ones which I’m particularly proud of – and I still find interesting – is Optus Pause. This is the ability to pause for a particular device, connectivity across the WiFi and the mobile network on demand.”
“And what is really cool is, as we were developing this, we imagined that we even called the project Dinner Time, because we thought this is going to be a product which parents want to use to get their kids to the dinner table,” he added.
“But actually in reality – as we’ve seen some customers using it – we really should have called it Bedtime. It’s actually something which customers use on Sunday night, mainly, as they tell the kids -“Back to school tomorrow.”
Nick said parents often use the ‘Optus Pause’ feature overnight: “They actually use the Optus Pause for the duration of the night to ensure their kids aren’t staying up late on the Internet. So that’s been quite a cool lesson we’ve had with our customers about how they want to use our products and as well – how we evolve the product going forward on the back of that.”
About Optus: Optus provides a network for Australian customers with a range of tools in My Optus app. The Optus Living Network puts you in control of all these features so you can do so much more than talk. For more information about the Optus Living Network, visit here.
For more information from Women Love Tech about Internet Providers and what they can do for you, visit here.