A few things have been happening to the payphones in the Melbourne CBD. The first is a change to their colours: from the standard Telstra corporate orange to their new ‘Life in Full Colour‘ branding.
The second is realigning them so that the advertising panels are more visible to passing traffic. Before – a pair of payphones located at a 90 degrees angle to Collins Street (near Queen Street):
After – facing the same way as oncoming traffic.
For the past decade Telstra have had to deal with a massive decline in payphone usage around Australia, and have now turned to outdoor advertising to make up the shortfall, as this 2007 article from The Age writes:
Adverts to save phone booths
March 22, 2007Superman’s preferred changeroom, the humble payphone booth, is becoming increasingly scarce, with many being removed due to low use or vandalism. But Telstra says it may have come up with an innovative way of saving them.
The telco has announced 2,000 specially designed payphone cabinets would be available Australia-wide to carry advertising, in a bid to boost revenue. Telstra consumer channels and marketing payphones director Sean Pyper said payphone use was declining due to the increased use of mobile phones.
Mr Pyper said trials had resulted in advertiser recall rates greater than 80 per cent, which was “quite outstanding”. He said growth in outdoor furniture advertising was about 10 per cent a year.
Telstra’s new payphones, to be managed by AdBooth Pty Ltd, will feature full-length enclosed panels on the rear of the cabinets.
Mr Pyper said they would be in high-traffic, high-profile locations across the capital cities and several regional centres, including Wollongong, Newcastle, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast.
I wonder what other ways Telstra will come up with to fit more advertising in the streets?
Interesting that they’re spending money on rebranding payphones even though the income from payphones is declining.
Maybe someone in the payphone department worked out they could weasel money out of the marketing guys for the rebranding – treat it as an advertising pillar with a payphone attached!
They have obstructed the footpath pretty comprehensivly in that third photo, and created a hazard where people will step off the kerb to get around it and get hit by a bus.
What are you talking about? They’re not any closer to the curb than they used to be. They also don’t encroach onto the footpath anymore than the bus stop or newsstand.
The relocated payphones mightn’t obstruct the footpath any more than the rest of the street furniture, but at least the other items add value to pedestrians. The only people to benefit from moving the payphones is the Telstra bottom line.
Interesting that they even bother to keep payphones. People used to howl if a public phone was removed. I have not heard such a protest for years. I think payphones are now only used to top up mobile phone accounts.
News stories regarding the removal of payphones pop up every year or so:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-21/three-yorke-peninsula-payphones-to-stay/3741920
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/telstra-payphones-on-hit-list/story-e6frgal6-1225782851362
The main reasons given for retaining them apply to country areas, where mobile phone coverage is patchy, or the neighbouring houses don’t have landline phones.