{"id":10045,"date":"2026-10-12T03:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T16:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/techdaily.com.au\/b2\/?p=10045"},"modified":"2026-10-18T03:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T16:09:49","slug":"public-payphones-still-in-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/techdaily.com.au\/b2\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\/","title":{"rendered":"Public PayPhones Still in Demand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australians have made nearly 120 million free calls since Telstra dropped fees on public payphones five years ago. Usage has tripled, with over 25 million calls in the past year alone\u2014including 280,000 to Triple Zero and crisis support lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Telstra\u2019s network features 14,000 payphones nationwide, with 5,000 offering free Wi-Fi and over 1,000 fitted with extended battery backup for disaster resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Telstra Foundation CEO Jacquie Coats says the demand speaks for itself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Even in a world full of smartphones, people still turn to a payphone when it truly counts. In the five years since we&#8217;ve made calls free, we&#8217;ve seen a big increase in call volumes, so we know they&#8217;re still relevant.&#8221;<br \/><br \/>To find your nearest payphone, use the Payphone Finder on Telstra.com or Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Australians have made nearly 120 million free calls since Telstra dropped fees on public payphones five years ago. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[824],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Public PayPhones Still in Demand - Tech Daily with Andy Wells<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/techdaily.com.au\/b2\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public PayPhones Still in Demand - Tech Daily with Andy Wells\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Australians have made nearly 120 million free calls since Telstra dropped fees on public payphones five years ago.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/techdaily.com.au\/b2\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tech Daily with Andy Wells\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/techdailyradio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-10-11T16:03:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-17T16:09:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/techdaily.com.au\/b2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Heritage-Listed-Telstra-Narooma-Payphone-5-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2048\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1365\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Wells\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Wells\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Andy Wells\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e7055c2d78fb67aa20630476da3de45d\"},\"headline\":\"Public PayPhones Still in Demand\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-10-11T16:03:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-10-17T16:09:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":131,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/10\\\/Heritage-Listed-Telstra-Narooma-Payphone-5-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/techdaily.com.au\\\/b2\\\/public-payphones-still-in-demand\\\/\",\"name\":\"Public PayPhones Still in Demand - 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