Pay Phones

Here in the USA typically if you call a toll free 800 number from a pay
phone there is no charge. Is this also the case in Australia and New
Zealand. I am going to use Pocket Mail for E-mail which have 800
numbers in both countries so I was wondering if the pay phone required a
coin to use it for a 800 number?

Thanks Ed

Most payphones take a Telstra Card (smart card with a built in chip which
stores your credit) - Buy at any Post Office, most newsagents, supermarkets
etc. Minimum value card $5. Calling 1800 numbers is free. 1300 numbers a
local call fee (40c).

Some phones take card or money, newer ones just the card. With 1800 numbers
no coin is required on Telstra phones. There are other providers of pay
phones, especially in malls etc - I don't know about them.



"Ed Gray" <w0sd@triotel.net> wrote in message
news:TuKdndJitPjQEUXfRVn-tg@rapidnet.com...
> Here in the USA typically if you call a toll free 800 number from a pay
> phone there is no charge. Is this also the case in Australia and New
> Zealand. I am going to use Pocket Mail for E-mail which have 800 numbers
> in both countries so I was wondering if the pay phone required a coin to
> use it for a 800 number?
>
> Thanks Ed

Ed Gray <w0sd@triotel.net> wrote:
> Here in the USA typically if you call a toll free 800 number from a pay
> phone there is no charge. Is this also the case in Australia and New
> Zealand. I am going to use Pocket Mail for E-mail which have 800
> numbers in both countries so I was wondering if the pay phone required a
> coin to use it for a 800 number?

As "A Mate" explained, in Australia a toll-free number is an 1800
number, not a 800 one, so you may want to check your reference which
mentions "800".

And no, an 1800 number does not need a coin or card (but it is always
wise to keep them handy).

Out of interest: What exactly is "Pocket Mail" (for E-mail) and how
can you use it from a *pay* phone? I.e. I assume Pocket Mail 'runs' on
some kind of PDA, laptop, etc. device, but how do you *connect* that
device to the pay phone? (Australian pay phones do not have connectors
for plugging in things.) I have been looking for an e-mail_from_a_pay_
phone solution, but haven't found anything, hence my interest [1].

[1] Some decades ago we had "acoustic coupler" type modems which
(theoretically) could be used in pay phones, but AFAIK these devices do
not exist anymore.

Ed,
e-mail facilities are available almost everywhere in Austr and NZ. Internet
cafes are common and cheap. Public Libraries in most cities and towns allow
free internet access. In some towns the Tourist Information Centre or "I"
also has cheap access.
I never had to look very hard in NZ - in Australia even remote centres like
Birdsville and Windorah have easy, cheap access!!
What you're about seems neither cheap nor easy!




"Ed Gray" <w0sd@triotel.net> wrote in message
news:TuKdndJitPjQEUXfRVn-tg@rapidnet.com...
> Here in the USA typically if you call a toll free 800 number from a pay
> phone there is no charge. Is this also the case in Australia and New
> Zealand. I am going to use Pocket Mail for E-mail which have 800 numbers
> in both countries so I was wondering if the pay phone required a coin to
> use it for a 800 number?
>
> Thanks Ed

A Mate <someone@somewhere.com> wrote:
> Ed,
> e-mail facilities are available almost everywhere in Austr and NZ. Internet
> cafes are common and cheap. Public Libraries in most cities and towns allow
> free internet access. In some towns the Tourist Information Centre or "I"
> also has cheap access.
> I never had to look very hard in NZ - in Australia even remote centres like
> Birdsville and Windorah have easy, cheap access!!
> What you're about seems neither cheap nor easy!

Well, I beg to differ. On our recent (mainly February) trip in Western
Australia, internet cafes (et al) were often closed at the times we
'needed' them, 'early' (around 08:00) or 'late' (around 16:00/17:00).
OTOH, the famous Telstra pay-phones [1] were never closed! :-)

[1] It always strikes me as funny/impressive, seeing a Telstra pay-phone
'booth' in the middle of nowhere, especially in the outback, sometimes
even without any house (or other building with/for humans) in sight.

Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> wrote in
news:42da1ee8$0$21665$dbd43001@news.wanadoo.nl:

> A Mate <someone@somewhere.com> wrote:
>> Ed,
>> e-mail facilities are available almost everywhere in Austr and NZ.
>> Internet cafes are common and cheap. Public Libraries in most cities
>> and towns allow free internet access. In some towns the Tourist
>> Information Centre or "I" also has cheap access.
>> I never had to look very hard in NZ - in Australia even remote
>> centres like Birdsville and Windorah have easy, cheap access!!
>> What you're about seems neither cheap nor easy!
>
> Well, I beg to differ. On our recent (mainly February) trip in
> Western Australia, internet cafes (et al) were often closed at the
times we 'needed' them, 'early' (around 08:00) or 'late' (around
16:00/17:00).


<snip>

Well, the locals don't call WA "Wait Awhile" for nothing, you know.


> OTOH, the famous Telstra pay-phones [1] were never closed! :-)
>

But rather often vandalised and in 'phonecard only mode'


> [1] It always strikes me as funny/impressive, seeing a Telstra
> pay-phone 'booth' in the middle of nowhere, especially in the outback,
> sometimes even without any house (or other building with/for humans)
> in sight.
>

I do agree.

Les :)

Well a couple of you have mentioned Internet cafes and your point is
well taken? In New Zealand this may work out well to do when we are there.

In answer to the question WHY? Because we use e-mail as our "ONLY" way
to be contacted when we are on the road. We deligently strive to check
our e-mail at least once a day, usually twice and internet cafes don't
work in meeting our needs. If we are parked in a National Park it may
be 100 miles or more to an Internet Cafe. Winlink does meet our needs
and I believe Pocket Mail would also. We might have to drive to a pay
phone but certainly not very far, very often. This may change in the
future with the increase in cell phones. To put it another way we have
tried "EVERYTHING" and this is the ONLY thing that works to reliably get
our e-mail each day and Winlink once the original investment is made is
TOTALLY FREE. A satellite phone would work but very "SPENDY". Pocket
Mail is definitely low cost, a lot less then internet cafes would be.


Again your point on the Internet Cafe is well taken and we might well
use them more than anyplace we have been; assuming the price is
reasonable and they are easy to find.

Thanks Ed


Neil Raines wrote:
Why use such limited technology when NZ is full of internet cafes?

Frank

Not bragging or complaining but we have many, many months on the road as
what we call 1/2 timers in an RV so having a way to stay in touch with
friends and for emergency purposes is extremely valuable to us. My
Mother is 90 years old and in a retirement home and she worries unless
she knows she can contact us or if something happens the place where she
stays can contact us She is also hard of hearing so talking to her on
the telephone is very difficult but she likes to read and write letters
so she writes out what she wants to send us and they send that in an
e-mail for her to us. We also have married children and grand kids so
we need to have a way of communicating with each other. We like
scenery, out of the way places and we don't like big towns so by
definition it seems we like places where there is "NO" cell phone
coverage.

The bottom line is that e-mail is the best way for us to communicate no
matter where we are in the world. Our experience has been the same as
yours Frank, we call it Murphy's Law when you need an internet
connection you can't get it so we found we needed to be in control of
our own destiny so we went with Winlink since I am an Amateur Radio
operator and I have back up equipment. This way we have our own
personal internet connection.

Now I am looking to add Pocket Mail as a back up as we are not sure that
the 5 amateur radio connection points in New Zealand/Australia will
always work where we are confident we can find a phone without a lot of
hassle. Thanks for your real life experience on the internet cafes.

I promised I would provide the information in regard to toll free access
for Pocket Mail in various countries. Here is the response from pocket
mail.

"It is toll free to use the device in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and
Australia. But the access number is different in each country.

You are only required to activated the device once and then you have
global access."

Kind Regards
Kylie B
PocketMail Customer Service

Ed - there is another solution which I use. Our circumstances are similar to
yours - my father is 95 and needs daily contact.

I use a triband gsm (mobile/cell) phone and a callback service (Google -
there are many, all cheap and even better for North American residents than
for Australians).

On arrival in a new country I buy a prepaid gsm sim card (dirt cheap
everywhere - Turkey, Italy UK, Canada, Ireland, Hong Kong, China etc. Most
countries have a gsm service except Japan and Korea).

You have to register your new phone number in each country, either through
the internet or by phone - I use internet cafes, but you can do it from a
pay phone - you can actually use your new mobile gsm tocall but that can be
expensive outside the callback system. Once that's done you can call out
very cheaply - using the simple callback procedure. Anyone can call you
directly on your new phone number.

Remember - outside North America (Canada and the USA) very few countries
charge for incoming calls to a mobile phone.

Good Luck




"Ed Gray" <w0sd@triotel.net> wrote in message
news:bvqdnUKN--wN2kDfRVn-hQ@rapidnet.com...
>I promised I would provide the information in regard to toll free access
>for Pocket Mail in various countries. Here is the response from pocket
>mail.
>
> "It is toll free to use the device in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and
> Australia. But the access number is different in each country.
>
> You are only required to activated the device once and then you have
> global access."
>
> Kind Regards
> Kylie B
> PocketMail Customer Service