Telephone-box calls to cost 20c

Press, 11 September 1986, Page 1

Telephone-box calls to cost 20c

PA Wellington The charge for making telephone-box calls will double to 20c later this year, said the PostmasterGeneral, Mr Hunt, yesterday. Announcing Cabinet approval for the increase, Mr Hunt said modifications of coin boxes would be made as quickly as possible from the end of October. The increase was regrettable, but it would help to offset the provision of more public tele-phone-boxes, some in remote areas. Much of the cost of running the service was incurred in repairing the “mindless vandalism and destruction” of public telephones, Mr Hunt said. The cost of public telephone vandalism was about $4 million a year compared with local call revenue of $1 million.

“What is the point of a new telephone box in a remote area as a life-line if some vandal disables it and it takes the Post Office almost a day to go and fix it?” Mr Hunt said. “Do we concede victory to the vandals and discontinue the service altogether, or do we endeavour to maintain the service, recognising the im-. possibility of ever eliminating vandalism entirely?”

Mr Hunt said the latter course had been chosen, along with moves to diversify and protect the service for genuine users. A recent development was the introduction in Christchurch of a new type of electronic payphone of stronger construction than older models. These would take a..wider range of coins, give change, and eventually allow subscriber toll dialling.