Telkom to remove all payphones .......

MyDraadloos

MyDraadloos

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I have lately seen Telkom technicians putting up notices on payphones indicating that Telkom plans to dismantle all this infrastructure.

It might be silly but I think there is a business opportunity hiding here. Is there no further use for all this infrastructure ?

Each of these locations have a phone line and power ..... not sure how much power, but most seem to have lights.

Any bright ideas ?
 
I've already seen "manned" cellular based payphones, maybe making way for "job creation"?
 
About time they were taken out they are a total loss to Telkom .
No one uses them and they are always damaged and tampered with , toys for children playing on the street .
 
MyDraadloos said:
I have lately seen Telkom technicians putting up notices on payphones indicating that Telkom plans to dismantle all this infrastructure.

It might be silly but I think there is a business opportunity hiding here. Is there no further use for all this infrastructure ?

Each of these locations have a phone line and power ..... not sure how much power, but most seem to have lights.

Any bright ideas ?
Click to expand...

They've been doing that for a few years now. Most of those payphones are still up and running.
 
FNfal said:
About time they were taken out they are a total loss to Telkom .
No one uses them and they are always damaged and tampered with , toys for children playing on the street .
Click to expand...
Last I looked it was still part of their license conditions...
 
I heard via the grapevine some time ago that they were "struggling" to get the payphone billing system to work with the new MSANs (compatibility issues) or whatnot and the plan was to kill off the payphones (partially?)...

Have seen one or two cell-connected telephones in the wild. Doubt they'll last.
 
MickeyD said:
Last I looked it was still part of their license conditions...
Click to expand...

IIRC there is an equal obligation on all NNOs to ensure that there is universal access to pay phones across the country. With the MNOs having found massive revenue to be made

To be honest I think this is a bloody bad thing. From experience: In Vegas there are plenty of pay phones in convenient locations. You have a phone hall area in most hotels. So calling home on a world call card was a breeze. Chicago on the other hand only has pay phones at train stations which was bloody inconvenient. Backpackers from abroad use prepaid phones pretty extensively in SA as well - more likely to see a European backbacker than a local at the payphones in Jbay.

My guess is that they will convert in some instances to WiFi hotspot and charging station and in other instances shut them down - the payphones at our PO have a discontinue notice
 
Paul Hjul said:
IIRC there is an equal obligation on all NNOs to ensure that there is universal access to pay phones across the country. With the MNOs having found massive revenue to be made

To be honest I think this is a bloody bad thing. From experience: In Vegas there are plenty of pay phones in convenient locations. You have a phone hall area in most hotels. So calling home on a world call card was a breeze. Chicago on the other hand only has pay phones at train stations which was bloody inconvenient. Backpackers from abroad use prepaid phones pretty extensively in SA as well - more likely to see a European backbacker than a local at the payphones in Jbay.

My guess is that they will convert in some instances to WiFi hotspot and charging station and in other instances shut them down - the payphones at our PO have a discontinue notice
Click to expand...
http://www.parliament.gov.za/live/commonrepository/Processed/20150512/605041_1.pdf

In March 2011, Telkom sought the permission from ICASA to reduce
unprofitable payphones. ICASA declined this process. In March 2014, ICASA
only reviewed the obligations attached to ECNS licensees holding 1800MHz
spectrum, excluding Telkom. The obligations include maintenance of
120 000 public payphones with only 2000 of these phones being profitable.
The losses incurred in respect of the pay phone business was presented to
the Committee. Telkom argued that the burden experienced from a cost
perspective, needs to be addressed.
Click to expand...
 
ja they have to try to argue that by reviewing some of the MNOs obligations ICASA acted unlawfully
but to be honest I doubt anybody is going to be complaining - least of all the MNOs
 
If these notices are being put up does this mean that they have been given permission to back out of their contractual obligation?

If they are to be converted into WiFi hot spots it will no doubt not be for free.
 
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