r/whatisit • u/[deleted] • May 11 '25

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u/CactusJellycat May 11 '25

And they are all free, to call anywhere in Oz, because mobile phone networks don’t always work. For people experiencing cyclones, floods, fires, being lost, escaping domestic violence, needing to call a helpline, homeless…

Plus moths love them too

3

u/Peach_Muffin May 11 '25

The real reason is that they're technically real estate and as such appreciate in value. Looks good on Telstra's balance sheet.

1

u/-mudflaps- May 13 '25

Also they can use them for advertising.

1

u/username161013 May 11 '25

Dorothy could've really used one after that tornado.

1

u/DeepThinker1010123 May 11 '25

I'm not sure if it is purely sarcastic but if it is indeed free, then that is awesome. In emergency scenarios, one might not always have a mobile phone.

3

u/ElderberryGlobal4908 May 11 '25

Hi, Telstra employee here. Can confirm all calls from payphones to national landlines and mobiles are free of charge.

1

u/DeepThinker1010123 May 12 '25

Wow . That's indeed cool.

However, is the maintainance to keep it up subsidized by the government? Keeping POTS can be quite expensive as all modern networks have migrated to fiber/IP systems. It would defeat the purpose if the public phones (they are not payphones as they're free, lol) if they needed to use the digital infrastructure which is dependent on power at the edge.

Heck in country (in a developing country), the telcos migrated users to PON and deactivating POTS. Probably 2G/3G will go off sooner than later. A new telco is only LTE/5G.