It's worth it to Telstra, to hold onto the real estate. They have effectively been been gifted a nationwide network of plots of land and structures that turn out to be a good match for 5G/6G/WiFi base station locations.
They are probably kicking themselves for ripping out so many phones in the past, thus giving up the locations.
The money comes from a levy on telecommunications carriers (Telstra included, but also most of it's competitors). There was a bit of conjecture in the media that the "free" payphones were really being paid for by the other telcos, once the money Telstra contributes is discounted.
They have a requirement to provide community phones, the cost of calls is trivial when compared with the cost of emptying coin draws and combating people trying to get a free call.
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Who pays for them to be free?
It's worth it to Telstra, to hold onto the real estate. They have effectively been been gifted a nationwide network of plots of land and structures that turn out to be a good match for 5G/6G/WiFi base station locations.
They are probably kicking themselves for ripping out so many phones in the past, thus giving up the locations.
It's part of what's called the Universal Service Obligation (USO) for which Telstra (the dominant carrier) is responsible for delivering:
https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/media-technology-communica...
The money comes from a levy on telecommunications carriers (Telstra included, but also most of it's competitors). There was a bit of conjecture in the media that the "free" payphones were really being paid for by the other telcos, once the money Telstra contributes is discounted.
They have a requirement to provide community phones, the cost of calls is trivial when compared with the cost of emptying coin draws and combating people trying to get a free call.