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In Australia the public pay phones have free nationwide calling and SMS, and double as wifi access points. They've proven useful for natural disasters and vict

by quitit 1y ago

In Australia the public pay phones have free nationwide calling and SMS, and double as wifi access points. They've proven useful for natural disasters and victims of domestic violence/coercive control. Since these phone booths tend to also show street advertising, it might be a way of preserving that revenue stream, while providing a reason for communities to want to keep the mostly redundant phone booths.

pyman 1y ago
Except in Brazil, pay phones have disappeared across most of America, especially in the US. The last time I was in New York I only saw a few left. This post made me realise how much work and cost goes into keeping a public phone running, including painting, repairs, cleaning, replacing vandalised parts, paying for electricity, and even sending people out to collect the coins. (I didn't even know collecting coins was an actual job)
awesome_dude 1y ago
> Since these phone booths tend to also show street advertising, it might be a way of preserving that revenue stream, while providing a reason for communities to want to keep the mostly redundant phone booths. https://cities-today.com/australian-cities-win-appeal-over-telstras-supersized-digital-ad-phone-booths/ https://cities-today.com/australian-cities-win-appeal-over-t...
- mbo 1y ago
  I actually investigated this exact thing (phone booths as advertising vectors) a little while ago: https://observablehq.com/@mjbo/sydney-qms-panel-public-telephone-pairings https://observablehq.com/@mjbo/sydney-qms-panel-public-telep... To cut to the chase, I think local councils are really upset that Telstra has the right to put these anywhere they want.
  - awesome_dude 1y ago
    > To cut to the chase, I think local councils are really upset that Telstra has the right to put these anywhere they want. Yes, as per the link I posted (which appears to predate your investigation by a number of years) I personally think that there needs to be a middle ground - Telstra have the real estate they do for the express purpose of providing access to a public phone, and I have no objection to them adding some advertising onto those. I do, however, find it difficult to agree to Telstra using that to justify building a much larger billboard that has little to no purpose relating to access to the public telephone network. Melbourne does not have any advertising on its pay phones now (not that I can think of, but I am going out some time this afternoon and will double check the CBD)
    - awesome_dude 1y ago
      A walk up King Street showed that there were ten public phones, 2 had large screens for advertising integrated into them, 3 had other advertising on them, and the remainder had no advertising at all. King Street isn't a main thoroughfare, just the one I happened to walk up

by quitit 1y ago

pyman 1y ago

Except in Brazil, pay phones have disappeared across most of America, especially in the US. The last time I was in New York I only saw a few left. This post made me realise how much work and cost goes into keeping a public phone running, including painting, repairs, cleaning, replacing vandalised parts, paying for electricity, and even sending people out to collect the coins. (I didn't even know collecting coins was an actual job)

awesome_dude 1y ago

> Since these phone booths tend to also show street advertising, it might be a way of preserving that revenue stream, while providing a reason for communities to want to keep the mostly redundant phone booths. https://cities-today.com/australian-cities-win-appeal-over-telstras-supersized-digital-ad-phone-booths/ https://cities-today.com/australian-cities-win-appeal-over-t...

mbo 1y ago
I actually investigated this exact thing (phone booths as advertising vectors) a little while ago: https://observablehq.com/@mjbo/sydney-qms-panel-public-telephone-pairings https://observablehq.com/@mjbo/sydney-qms-panel-public-telep... To cut to the chase, I think local councils are really upset that Telstra has the right to put these anywhere they want.
- awesome_dude 1y ago
  > To cut to the chase, I think local councils are really upset that Telstra has the right to put these anywhere they want. Yes, as per the link I posted (which appears to predate your investigation by a number of years) I personally think that there needs to be a middle ground - Telstra have the real estate they do for the express purpose of providing access to a public phone, and I have no objection to them adding some advertising onto those. I do, however, find it difficult to agree to Telstra using that to justify building a much larger billboard that has little to no purpose relating to access to the public telephone network. Melbourne does not have any advertising on its pay phones now (not that I can think of, but I am going out some time this afternoon and will double check the CBD)
  - awesome_dude 1y ago
    A walk up King Street showed that there were ten public phones, 2 had large screens for advertising integrated into them, 3 had other advertising on them, and the remainder had no advertising at all. King Street isn't a main thoroughfare, just the one I happened to walk up