Interesting bit of trivia

[red750]

Something I picked up tonight on the web. Not that you can find many around these days, but as from tomorrow, all phone calls from a Telstra public phone are free. So you won't have to rummage for a few coins if you are caught with a flat mobile battery.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Guaranteed then, that by the end of the year, you won't find any Telstra public phones 🙂

 

[spacesailor]

I see they are also a WI FI hub.

A Telstra customer can put in a pin to make their FREE call.

Then get that bill on their nbn statement.

Not so free AND nothing for those at the bottom of society., that perhaps need that FREE call.

Now I,M down to the ' poverty pension '.   see much more than l did when wealthier.

spacesailor

 

[Yenn]

Did you really expect Telstra to provide anything free?

My experience with them is that they charge for services that they don't supply if they get a a chance.

[red750]

From the ABC News website...

 

 

The company said around 11 million calls were made from its payphones last year, including 230,000 calls to critical services such as 000 and Lifeline.

 

Telstra CEO Andy Penn said the move to make every payphone free would cost the company around $5 million a year.

"Just watching over the last 18 months how they've played a role in emergency situations through the bushfires in keeping people connected and particularly those that are vulnerable and disadvantaged, I just thought we've got to a point where we can make this free," he said

 

"It's not not a big deal for Telstra." 

 

Mr Penn said Telstra had no plans to remove any of the payphones, and the number of phones the company maintained was determined by the federal government.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, spacesailor said:

I see they are also a WI FI hub.

A Telstra customer can put in a pin to make their FREE call.

Then get that bill on their nbn statement.

Not so free AND nothing for those at the bottom of society., that perhaps need that FREE call.

Now I,M down to the ' poverty pension '.   see much more than l did when wealthier.

spacesailor

 

In one way, it would be good to follow the US lead: https://www.wifimap.io/countries/234-united-states-free-wifi

 

An interesting bit of Trivia.. the CSIRO invented wi fi: https://www.sbs.com.au/news/explainer/wifi-australian-invention-helping-world-connect

What I can't understand is why only $420M in royalties since them (article written in 2016).

[onetrack]

I'll wager the Telstra story about free payphones costing them $5M is a very one-sided story. I bet by the time they take into account the cost of repairing the constant damage to payphones by people trying to get the coins out of them - as compared to substantially reduced costs now, as they no longer contain any money - and I'd have to opine their costs of running a free payphone network are much lower than $5M.

[nomadpete]

Historically, payphones have never made a profit. The phasing out of cash has already greatly reduced the massive cost of vandalism, as attacking them is hardly worth the effort when ATM's are far more tempting to dimwit thieves.

 

I think that basically it was costing too much to collect the meagre coinbox contents. There is no point in paying staff to go around collecting coins that don't even cover his/her wages.

 

However, even without the temptation of stealing money from the payphones, the knuckle draggers will continue to wreck the phones just for 'fun'.

 

This opinion is based on a fairly large number of years working for the company.

[red750]

On a somewhat similar vein, I contracted for the company which ran the old Metcard machines on Melbourne's public transport, before they were replaced by Miki. My role was to take calls from the railway stations, trams control room or bus operators when they reported faults with the machines. On the overnight shift, 6.00 pm to 6.00 am, we monitored alarm systems on the ticket vending machines at railway stations, and called Chubb Security and the police when an alarm went off. The TVM's were regularly broken into overnight, or damaged (superglue in the coin slot etc.) during the day. Kananook station on the Frankston line was a regular target, because it was in a secluded area. Lots of damage in addition to the stolen cash, and inconvenience to the commuters.