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" wrote in message
...
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 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.

I was not specific enough the toll free number in Australia is
1800 13 57 51 and New Zealand is 0800 762538 for pocket mail. I
wondered about a card, when we are in Mexico all the phones use cards.
There is also a toll free number in the USA and Canada for pocket mail.
I am checking now to be sure I can subscribe here in the USA and use
my pocket mail unit on the toll free numbers in all these countries. It
appears you can but there is some mention of local access numbers so I
want to resolve it for sure. I also need to find out if I am activated
world wide or if I have to do an activation for each country. I will
report here when I find out.

Here is a link to pocket mail, http://www.pocketmail.com/aus/. It is
the old acoustic coupler system only about 2400 baud but you can slide
the recieve end of the coupler to fit most size phone pieces including a
cellphone and is only for e-mail but the $99 unit also serves as an
organizer. It will give me a backup here in the USA when I am out of
cell phone coverage which seems to be a lot where we travel with our RV.

I have pretty much tried it "ALL" for E-mail on the road. My standby
has been amateur radio using Pactor III on a system called Winlink.
Basically text only BUT have used it all over North America, Alaska to
central america and Europe and Africa on a daily basis for months at a
time. Does require some room to carry an antenna or have an mobile
antenna on the vehicle. Also great for full time sailers and if no
amateur license there is what is called SAILMAIL. I hope Winlink will
be my main way of using E-mail in Australia and New Zealand(limited to 5
connect stations there given sunspot cycle) but Pocket Mail is used by
some of my friends who do not have an amateur radio license and they
have good success with it so it will be a good backup. I firmly believe
in backup when ever possible.

Thanks for the information. It looks like one time $99 USD for the unit
and $9.95 USD a month(I will take the two years) for unlimited e-mails
and no telephone cost.

Why use such limited technology when NZ is full of internet cafes?


I was not specific enough the toll free number in Australia is
1800 13 57 51 and New Zealand is 0800 762538 for pocket mail. I wondered
about a card, when we are in Mexico all the phones use cards. There is
also a toll free number in the USA and Canada for pocket mail. I am
checking now to be sure I can subscribe here in the USA and use my pocket
mail unit on the toll free numbers in all these countries. It appears you
can but there is some mention of local access numbers so I want to resolve
it for sure. I also need to find out if I am activated world wide or if I
have to do an activation for each country. I will report here when I find
out.

Here is a link to pocket mail, http://www.pocketmail.com/aus/. It is the
old acoustic coupler system only about 2400 baud but you can slide the
recieve end of the coupler to fit most size phone pieces including a
cellphone and is only for e-mail but the $99 unit also serves as an
organizer. It will give me a backup here in the USA when I am out of cell
phone coverage which seems to be a lot where we travel with our RV.

I have pretty much tried it "ALL" for E-mail on the road. My standby has
been amateur radio using Pactor III on a system called Winlink. Basically
text only BUT have used it all over North America, Alaska to central
america and Europe and Africa on a daily basis for months at a time. Does
require some room to carry an antenna or have an mobile antenna on the
vehicle. Also great for full time sailers and if no amateur license there
is what is called SAILMAIL. I hope Winlink will be my main way of using
E-mail in Australia and New Zealand(limited to 5 connect stations there
given sunspot cycle) but Pocket Mail is used by some of my friends who do
not have an amateur radio license and they have good success with it so it
will be a good backup. I firmly believe in backup when ever possible.

Thanks for the information. It looks like one time $99 USD for the unit
and $9.95 USD a month(I will take the two years) for unlimited e-mails and
no telephone cost.

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" wrote in message
...
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 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 wrote in
:

A Mate 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.