Public payphones have been around since 1880, but now in the age of the smart phone, how much relevance do public phones have in modern Australian life?
Telstra recently announced all local and national calls to fixed line, or Australian mobile numbers are now free to use.
“It just means people don’t have to worry about having a pocketful of coins if they need to make a phone call in an emergency,” Telstra CEO Andy Penn told the ABC.
But how many phones still exist and does anyone actually use them?
According to Telstra there are 15,000 public payphones nationwide, a significant drop from the 86,000 active in 1990. Since then, public phones have steadily disappeared with a 28 per cent decrease over the last decade.
Data from Telstra shows that Victoria now only has 2835 public phones down from 3,033 in 2018. Across the state, public phones are dotted along public transport lines or nestled in public centres with the highest number of phones concentrated in Melbourne, Richmond and Mildura. The below graphic maps Victorian payphones by suburb and population size.
While there no immediate link that can be drawn between number of public phones and the usual factors – population size, location, affluence, interesting discrepancies between suburbs suggest further research could provide greater insight into local stories.
For example, under the universal service obligation Telstra must ensure that public phones are reasonably accessible to all people in Australia on an equitable basis. But only 955 Victorian phones are Wi-Fi accessible and even fewer – less than one per cent – provide teletypewriters (TTY), a service which enables those with disabilities to send and receive written messages over the telephone network.
At a time where 95 per cent of the country owns a mobile, it would be easy to discount public phones as an anachronism. However there is plenty of evidence that public phones are still in use with 11 million phone calls recorded last year.
Public phones are used to make 2 per cent of annual calls to emergency services according to Australian Media Communications Authority and can provide an essential service for those in vulnerable situations such as family violence, housing insecurity of states of emergency.
In praising Telstra’s decision, CEO of the Council of Homelessness Persons Jenny Smith summed up the change as making it easier for those without access to a mobile to “communicate and reach out for support when they need it.”
To find your local pay phone head to Telstra Payphone Locator and Register
Featured image: A public payphone booth tucked away on a suburban strip, Friday 18 August 2021.(EIDDWEN JEFFERY)
