The Sydney Morning Herald.
Telstra is said to have approved plans to slash 5,000 of its 32,000 payphones in country towns and capital cities over the next seven months.
The Australian Financial Review reports that while only 15 per cent of the payphones to be removed are in rural and regional areas, country towns in at least four states face the loss of half their public outdoor phones.
To defuse the political fallout from its decision, the majority government-owned carrier will engage in a secret but deceptive strategy of marking the phones with a sticker claiming the service is being relocated, the paper says.
It says it has obtained a Telstra Country Wide briefing note revealing a strategy to minimise consultation with local governments over the move, divert complaints and avoid media scrutiny.
A Telstra insider says payphones identified for the removal program have an average annual usage totalling $1,500 to $4,000.
The removal plan is set to further aggravate relations between the telco and the government over phone services in rural and regional areas in the lead-up to the sale of the government's remaining $26 billion stake in the carrier.
The cost-cutting drive forms part of chief executive Sol Trujillo's plan to freeze $11 billion a year in expenses for the next five years.
During the period, up to 11,000 people face the sack, its IT networks will be rationalised and $25 billion will be spent on new capital investment, the paper says.
Copyright 2006 AAP Copyright 2006 The Sydney Morning Herald.