ITWire

In January 2007 Telstra trialled Internet kiosks from the company at 10 installations around Australia as the result of an initiative from technology consultancy, SMS Technology and Management. SMS CEO, Tony Stianos, claimed at the time that SMS had "conceive[d] an opportunity, architect[ed] a solution and take[n] the concept to the client in an unsolicited way."

Telstra subsequently trialled a kiosk that combined a Telstra payphone with an ANZ automatic teller machine. The first kiosk was installed in Centre Road, Bentleigh in Melbourne's south-east and the two companies said they planned an initial pilot in up to five locations in Melbourne's suburbs. Further rollout was to be based on customer feedback on the concept. Nothing came of that project.

There have been three other initiatives by Telstra to deploy multimedia payphones. None of these was more ambitious than the first dating from 1997. The device was designed and developed in house by Telstra, which called for expressions of interest from manufacturers for rollout of an estimated 10,000 units in Australia and 40,000 for export. The project was subsequently abandoned and all the initial units removed from the network.