Dialling delight

EMERALD business owners have welcomed news that Telstra is to review the charges for outer metropolitan areas.
They say it is about time something was done about the STD (subscriber trunk dialling) rates which they claim add hundreds of extra dollars to their phone bills.
The business approval comes after La Trobe MP Jason Wood announced the review last week.
He said the issue has been on his agenda since he was a candidate running for election in 2004.
Mr Woods said after many discussions with the Minister for Communications Helen Coonan a decision had been made to review the current call rate for residents in Emerald, Gembrook and Cockatoo.
Emerald Newsagency proprietor Ken Hargreaves said he was sick and tired of paying STD rates to make calls to inner city suburbs.
Mr Hargreaves said his phone bill is $500 a month for STD calls alone without adding the local calls.
He said it didn’t seem fair that Monbulk was only 25 kilometres away, yet it didn’t contend with the STD call rates.
Mr Hargreaves said 80 per cent of his business calls are STDs, which has a big effect on the costs of his monthly phone bills.
James McConnach of Emerald co-op Mitre 10 said that it was ridiculous that calls to suburbs such as Vermont were classified as STD calls.
Mr McConnach said it was time something was done for residents living in Emerald, as the call rates had not changed in more than 26 years.
“It has always been an issue in Emerald even before I moved here more than 26 years ago,” he said.
Mr Wood said that businesses in Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook are facing a $6000 a year phone bill and that is mostly contributed to by the STD call rates.
Mr Wood said to remove STD rates would mean providing equality for local residents.
“Currently Telstra’s local call zoning has not changed in 40 years, and people are moving further into the suburbs as the population expands,” he said.
Mr Wood said it was important for La Trobe residents to have access to the Melbourne Central Business District for the cost of a local call and that the current charging system was detrimental to local businesses.
Mr Wood said it was not just businesses that were affected by the STD call rates.
He said it was having a bad effect on the local communities of Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook.
He said local residents who have family or friends in Vermont or in the CBD are also paying the higher call rates.
“The community wears so much of the cost and are less likely to be able to afford the calls than the local businesses,” he said.
Spokesman for Telstra Patrick O’Beirne said the reasons for the STD rates are because the current call zones.
Mr O’Beirne said Emerald, Cockatoo and Gembrook were zoned as rural and that there had been some suggestions from politicians to move the zone boundaries.
But, he said that this would only be shifting the issue and would cause further problems, as new boundaries would need to be established.
However, Mr O’Bierne said that Telstra had offered local residents in Emerald a 40-cent call rate while a review of the STD call rate was being undertaken.