Plans by phone giant Telstra to remove Elizabeth Bay’s only public pay-phones have drawn opposition from local residents.
Local real estate agent Nick Harrington wrote a letter to Telstra on 23 December protesting against the removal of a phone booth at 70 Elizabeth Bay Road.
He also taped the letter to the phone booth alongside a petition which has received over 70 signatures of support for his letter from passers-by.
A public payphone at 19 Ithaca Road is also being removed which will mean the nearest phone booth will be at 77 Macleay St – an uphill walk of about half a kilometre away.
Mr Harrington said that this is unfair to elderly residents in the area. “A public payphone is exactly that,” he said.
“Telstra has been given a monopoly over our telephone infrastructure and I think part of that is a responsibility to provide public payphone access to citizens.”
A spokesperson for Telstra said that payphone use has declined 60 percent since 2000 and attributed the drop to a 100 percent increase in mobile phone use.
“There are now more mobile phones than there are people in Australia,” she said.
“Telstra has been forced to rationalise its public pay phone network because of increasing maintenance costs, in addition to the fact that fewer and fewer people are using the services because of the increasing popularity of mobile phones.”
Telstra’s Universal Service Obligation, which is dictated by the Federal Government, says that public payphones in residential areas with high levels of home phone connections that aren’t profitable may be removed at Telstra’s discretion.
This would mean there is nothing to prevent Telstra removing the Elizabeth Bay phones.
The company’s policy, explained on its website, is to invite community comment and take any comments into account when deciding on the fate of phone booths. However, the final decision rests with Telstra.
Telstra informed City News that it responded to Mr Harrington’s letter on the 4th of January, but would not speculate on the outcome of the consultation process or whether the petition would help save the phone booths.
A City News source who wished to remain anonymous said the move is part of a broader plan by Telstra to remove phone booths which do not have good exposure for advertising purposes. Numbers provided suggest up to 20 percent of phone booths across the greater Sydney region could be at risk.
Telstra’s spokesperson admitted that advertising on payphones does help supplement the operational costs of maintaining the payphones, but said less than 5 percent of public payphones across the Sydney Local Government Area are currently under review.
To voice your opinion on the removal of the Elizabeth Bay payphones or other payphones across the city, phone 1800 011 433 or write to: Telstra Payphones Siting Manager, Locked Bag 6658, Sydney NSW 2001.
by Aaron Cook
