Tuppence worth of trouble

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 16

Tuppence worth of trouble

Twenty years ago, in pre-decimal days, a call from a public telephone cost twopence. The two big, brown coins went into the slot with a satisfying clonk, and usually the telephone worked. Today a call costs 10 cents; before the end of the year it will be 20 cents; and there is a good chance that, thanks to vandals, the telephone will not work. Vandals last year caused damage to public telephones that cost $4 million to repair — a high price for the community to pay to provide readily accessible outlets for boredom, drunkenness, or a desire to hit something that cannot hit back. The revenue from local telephone calls made from the call boxes was only $1 million. Even if the price is doubled, and there is no decline in the number of calls, the coins in the slot will only meet half the cost of the vandalism, let alone the other costs of providing an important service. The vandalism may well get worse. Even in inflationary times, 20-cent coins retain some value and there may be an increased incentive for thieves to tackle the coin-boxes.

Ingenious as they are, Post Office engineers cannot guarantee a thief-proof mechanism, any more than they can build a damage-proof call-box. If there is a significant increase in attempts to steal call money, it might actually be cheaper to make public telephones free so that theft, at least, is no longer an incentive to damage the mechanism. Vandalism against public telephones is difficult to prevent; offenders are hard to find and prosecute. Yet a system of public telephones — in working order — is one of the most valuable assets a community can have. Usually, when such a telephone is needed, it is needed urgently; or it is required by a visitor attempting to get organised in a strange community. The service is worth maintaining, in spite of the best efforts of a handful of people to destroy it. Perhaps, one day, there will be public telephones capable of reaching out to grab anyone who tampers with them. Until then, lawful users will have to hunt for boxes where the telephones still work — and then pay up their 20 cents.