Telstra revamps payphone prices, enables inbound calls
Telstra has unveiled new prices for payphone calls, offering a flat rate for calls to landlines and cutting the cost of calling Australian mobile phone numbers.
Telstra has unveiled new prices for payphone calls, offering a flat rate for calls to landlines and cutting the cost of calling Australian mobile phone numbers.
The government’s planned successor to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) is “a massive missed opportunity” that will allow Telstra “to continue to line its own pockets at the expense of Regional Australia and taxpayers,” according to a Vodafone executive.
The federal government has acknowledged that the Universal Service Obligation (USO) scheme, which guarantees all Australians have access to standard landline telephone services and payphones, is “increasingly outdated”.
A decades-long contract signed with Telstra to deliver standard telephone services and maintain payphones does not reflect value for money principles, according to an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) report released today.
Vodafone and the Competitive Carriers’ Coalition have repeated their calls for the Telecommunications Universal Service Obligation scheme to be scrapped in the wake of yesterday’s report on the USO by the Productivity Commission.