As the universal service provider, Telstra must provide payphones that are reasonably accessible on an equitable basis to all people in Australia. This obligation covers the supply, installation and maintenance of payphones.
The ACMA is responsible for approving and monitoring the performance of Telstra’s Standard Marketing Plan (SMP), which includes siting criteria for payphones and processes to be undertaken by Telstra when it is considering whether to remove or relocate a public payphone.
The ACMA is also continuing to implement the relevant parts of the government’s response to the 2004 Payphone Policy Review. In particular, the ACMA has been working with Telstra and the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy on a program to substantially improve payphone performance in remote Indigenous communities.
