Fading urban facilities.

Have you noticed that public payphone boxes are getting harder to find ?    That is probably not surprising, seeing that today most people have some sort of mobile communication device with them at all times - but public payphones deliver an emergency service to the small section of the community still without this facility - and those whose mobile is either out of credit or needs a battery recharge.

When you need an ambulance or the police, it was once a boast of government that a public payphone would be within reach of all members of the public, including those who live in remote rural areas.   That was before Telstra became a public company - and started ripping out payphones that failed to meet the cost of the services they provide.

Now that option has ceased.  Telstra is bound by the incredibly titled " Telecommunications Universal Services Management Agency Bill 2011 "  and can no longer slap a sticker on an uneconomical payphone, shut down it's service - and send in contractors to remove the facility.    It will take a long and detailed investigation to gain such an approval.

But - what about other public service utilities affected by falling demand for their services ?

The post office system is under threat as letter rates drop.   Each year more and more people convert from paying bills by post to using the banks direct debit facilities, or using phone banking or paying bills on the Internet.    There are signs that the post offices are morphing into wide ranging retail agencies, offering services such as stationery, insurance - and lately a fast expanding banking function.   Commerce now tends to bill customers by Internet email, rather than sending a monthly bill in the post.

It seems certain that government cost analysis sections must be compiling data on the mail box system.  It costs money to clear the thousands of public mail boxes each day, and as the number of postings drop, the charge for stamps rises - and there will be pressure to reduce the facilities for posting a letter.

It seems that we are entering an inevitable tug of war between the economists- who say that services must be appropriate to what it costs the public purse to provide - and the ever decreasing small groups of people who depend on those services to survive, because society condemns them to living below the standards that apply to their more affluent cousins.

What seems certain is that as the communication age advances, more of the services we take for granted will quietly slip into the danger zone of becoming labelled " uneconomic " !