Telstra and City of Melbourne feud continues
Australian telecommunications firm, Telstra is believed to have faced various city councils in a Federal Court Case this week (October 23rd), making this the latest in the ongoing battle with Australian councils to upgrade telephone boxes featuring large advertising screens.
Friday, 25 Oct 2019 14:48 GMT
The phone booth battle between Telstra and the councils of Australia continues at the Federal Court
In 2017, JCDecaux and Telstra announced their Adbooth partnership to bring phone boxes into the 21st century in the form of 1,860 payphones, to Melbourne and surrounding areas.
The booths were to be upgraded to include phone charging, digital advertising screens, public transport info and multilingual and disability support. Telstra called this the first major redesign of phone booths since 1983.
These phone booths do not technically require planning approval as they are considered “low impact” under the Federal Telecommunications Act.
In May 2019, despite Telstra maintaining that the new design falls under the “low impact facility” regulations, local councils raised concerns over the impact these new booths and advertising screens would have due to the size and design of them.
According to Telstra, payphones in regional and metro areas provide a “vital civic utility”, with 13 million calls made last year in Australia via the public service, 200,000 of these emergencies.
We understand they will feature larger commercial advertising panels that will increase clutter on our footpaths when we are working hard to reduce it”
However, measuring in at 2.7m high and 1.2m wide, the new payphone structures are considerably larger than older phonebooths in the city. The booths also have the capacity to show up to four adverts a minute using a 75” LCD screen.
The City of Melbourne sought out the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) to challenge Telstra’s plans. In response, Telstra turned to the Federal Court to decide whether the designs are low impact, so that the judgement would apply across the whole country.
In June this year, The City of Sydney joined in the battle by filing an application to join The City of Melbourne in the Federal Court Proceedings, with The City of Brisbane following suit.
Speaking to Australian marketing and media news site, Mumbrella, at the time, The City of Sydney said: “Our view is that the new upgraded payphones are not intended to be designed solely for use as a content and carriage service.
“We understand they will feature larger commercial advertising panels that will increase clutter on our footpaths when we are working hard to reduce it.”
According to The Guardian, Telstra provided its submissions to the federal court on October 11th, and Melbourne and Sydney city councils provided theirs on October 18th.
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