The plug has been pulled on Spark’s plan to modernise public phone booths across the country and it will begin removing them for good.
Spark had explored a range of options with local and central government to modernise its network of public phone booths that would have offered free calling, Wi-Fi and phone charging through digital billboards rather than charges to users or public funding.
A proposal to modernise the booths collapsed after the country’s largest telco was unable to "secure the agreements needed to progress the proposal" in Auckland, the company said.
Spark said the proposal would not be commercially viable without a nationwide rollout.
Spark will remove remaining booths after failing to seal a deal for free Wi-Fi and phone charging stations. (Source: 1News)
In a statement, Spark chief corporate affairs officer Leela Ashford acknowledged the "important lifeline" that phone booths play for Aotearoa’s most vulnerable – "particularly those without reliable access to a mobile phone or internet connection" who need to contact essential services.
"While we are disappointed that we have not found a way to proceed with our proposed investment, we remain open to revisiting the modernisation proposal if circumstances change in the future."
Charging hubs were in operation in cities overseas such as London and New York. In Australia, comparable services supported around 25 million calls in one year – including around 300,000 emergency calls.
'No application was made' – Auckland Council
In a statement, Auckland Council general counsel Meredith Webb said the council "has made no decision to stop or block Spark’s proposal".
Webb said the council and Auckland Transport staff had engaged with Spark on the proposal, which had included the installation of commercial digital billboards on public footpaths.
"The council met with Spark on a number of occasions and gave guidance on how a proposal of this kind could be progressed."
She continued: "At that time decision-making responsibility for roads and footpaths sat with Auckland Transport, so Spark was advised to make an application based on the proposal to Auckland Transport. However, no application was ever made. The relevant responsibilities have recently transferred to Auckland Council as part of transport reform but since then the council has not received further communication from Spark on the proposal."
An application was required as the planned advertising would have sat outside infrastructure that can be installed in the road corridor under the Telecommunications Act.
"As with any proposal to place commercial billboards in the road corridor, Spark needs to follow an approval process, which manages competing uses in this public space, and which protects the public interest. We have not worked through this process with Spark because no application was made," she said.
"If Spark wishes to progress the proposal any further, the council remains open to further discussions and guidance."
Spark said no application was made, as part of the agreement with the council was it would share part of its advertising revenue with it, on top of an external, outdoor ad agency.
It would not prove cost effective sharing the revenue three ways and the cost two ways, it said.
Phone booths 'dwindling away'
Following Spark's meetings with the council, the telco went to the Government seeking changes to parts of the local government law allowing an exemption for the digital billboards.
"It requires a legislative fix which we weren’t in a position to do," Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith told 1News.
At its peak, there were 2500 public phone booths across New Zealand. Today, there are just 212 still in service.
Between 2018 and 2022, Spark said call volumes on the fixed-line phone booth network had declined by nearly 70%, with 90% used for less than three minutes per day on average.
Goldsmith said he was unsurprised phone booths were "drifting off" into history.
"Most people have their own phones and so I’m not surprised that the number of phone booths is dwindling away," he said.
Around 90% of booths across the country had been disconnected as Chorus retired its copper network, with the physical removal of booths to follow in 2027 and 2028.
The company had stopped selling and reordering new Spark phone card stock as the network was being phased out.
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