City of Melbourne knocks back 81 advertising applications on Telstra’s new giant payphones

The days of payphones in Melbourne’s CBD could be numbered, with the council declaring war on 81 new super-sized phone booths and accusing Telstra of flooding the city with digital billboards.

A Telstra payphone in Melbourne’s CBD.

Telstra is set to lose million of dollars after City Hall knocked back 81 applications for advertising on its new super-sized payphones.

The new payphones fitted with 75” coloured LCD screens are 2.7m high and 1.2m wide — 600mm taller and 400mm wider than the older phone booths — and can show up to four

advertisements per minute copped a bad reception from Town Hall.

The City of Melbourne is will now dialling up the pressure on the telco as it takes its case to Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal asking for it to rule that the new payphones should require planning approval.

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Under law, planning approval is not needed for phone booths because they met the “low-impact facility” criteria and Melbourne City Council was unable to refuse the structures going up despite vehemently being opposed to them.

Turning them into money-making phone booths was a key decision in saving many of the old payphones from the scrap heap.

A Telstra Payphone in Melbourne CBD

Outside billboard advertising company JCDecaux submitted at least 81 applications to advertise on the giant phone booths but had each one rejected with the council refusing to allow the city to be flooded in advertising.

But the telco is free to advertise any Telstra-related product without asking for council’s permission.

Chair of the City of Melbourne’s planning portfolio Cr Nicholas Reece disagreed the phone booths were low impact said they impacted negatively on the city.

“With nearly 90 per cent of Australians owning a mobile phone, it’s hard to believe there’s a need for this many super-sized phone booths in the central city,” he said.

“Indeed, these new structures are more like digital billboards masquerading as phone booths on the footpaths of our city.

“We don’t want people to be bombarded with oversized and intrusive commercial advertising on public infrastructure.”

Councils including Port Phillip, Maribyrnong, Stonnington and Yarra have also expressed concern about the billboard-like payphones.

A Telstra spokesman said the telco was “disappointed” with the decision and argued the size of the new pay phones was to house more technology and better connections.

“It is envisaged that over time the new payphones will provide a number of additional services for pedestrians and the community, including device charging, free wi-fi, community and emergency messages and for information for everything from public transport information and maps, weather, tourist information and nearby cultural attractions,” the spokesman said.

“In most cases a new payphone will be installed in non-pedestrian thoroughfares and other existing street furniture like seats, trees and bins so as to reduce pedestrian impact.”

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