Australia's giant main carrier Telstra, owns all public telephones. It has just announced that calls from all public phones are now free, all over Australia, for calls of up to 6 hours. (local calls have not been traditionally timed in Australia)
Cynic and skeptic that I am, I'm a bit stunned. Is it because these days people seldom use public phones?
Can this possibly be an altruistic act?
Only thing I can think of is tax: Telstra has this massive infrastructure of public phones all over the country. Due to mobile phones, that infrastructure is badly under used. That means much lower revenue. Could it possibly be that the free calls can b tax write offs? Perhaps that means a lower tax bill on other aspects of Telstra business?
"Australians will now be able to make phone calls for free on public pay phones across the country.
Telstra announced on Tuesday that standard national calls and SMS from the telco’s network of more than 15,000 pay phones will be made free, while pay phones will become coinless from October 1.
But consumers will still have to pay for overseas calls.
Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn said pay phones were a vital lifeline, particularly for the homeless and people escaping an unsafe situation."
Telstra plan makes calls free on pay phones across Australia | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site
Cynic and skeptic that I am, I'm a bit stunned. Is it because these days people seldom use public phones?
Can this possibly be an altruistic act?
Only thing I can think of is tax: Telstra has this massive infrastructure of public phones all over the country. Due to mobile phones, that infrastructure is badly under used. That means much lower revenue. Could it possibly be that the free calls can b tax write offs? Perhaps that means a lower tax bill on other aspects of Telstra business?
"Australians will now be able to make phone calls for free on public pay phones across the country.
Telstra announced on Tuesday that standard national calls and SMS from the telco’s network of more than 15,000 pay phones will be made free, while pay phones will become coinless from October 1.
But consumers will still have to pay for overseas calls.
Telstra chief executive Andrew Penn said pay phones were a vital lifeline, particularly for the homeless and people escaping an unsafe situation."
Telstra plan makes calls free on pay phones across Australia | news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site