Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
blue phone (in Australia)
English answer:
a local public pay phone operated by a private company
Added to glossary by
airmailrpl
Dec 2, 2003 14:53
20 yrs ago
English term
blue phone
Non-PRO
English
Other
Rules of an Australian refuge for single women:
A blue phone is available for all personal phone calls and to contact the On-Call worker after hours. Other than in an emergency and in consideration to other residents must - 1) Limit calls to no longer than 15 minutes 2) No calls before 7am and after 11pm at night 3) Communicate to other residents if you are expecting an incoming call...
A blue phone is available for all personal phone calls and to contact the On-Call worker after hours. Other than in an emergency and in consideration to other residents must - 1) Limit calls to no longer than 15 minutes 2) No calls before 7am and after 11pm at night 3) Communicate to other residents if you are expecting an incoming call...
Responses
Responses
21 hrs
airmailrpl
Brazil
Brazil
Native in English
&
English
Brazil
Technical - Fast - good price - accurate
Native in: English (Variant: US) 
, Portuguese (Variant: Brazilian)
Works in: English to Portuguese, Portuguese to English, English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
1195
Selected
public phone.. pay phone
Morshead Home: Hostel Services
... in the monthly calendar. Telephones: A ‘Blue Phone’ (public) is
located on the corner opposite the smokers room. You may have ...
www.morshead.com.au/hostel/hoservices.html -
338 responses on google for the exact phrase "blue phone" on Australian sites
... in the monthly calendar. Telephones: A ‘Blue Phone’ (public) is
located on the corner opposite the smokers room. You may have ...
www.morshead.com.au/hostel/hoservices.html -
338 responses on google for the exact phrase "blue phone" on Australian sites
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you for a lot of good answers, however it seems that in Australia a "blue phone" (it is blue indeed) most commonly means a public pay phone operated by a private company (not Telstra) used for local calls.
Quote: Some public telephones, such as ?blue phones? allow only 3 minutes per call, and cannot be used to make long distance or international calls.
A more functional (and more expensive) version is called "gold phone". See:
http://www.aca.gov.au/telcomm/universal_service_regime/sts-payphone.htm
http://www.eastcoasttelephoneco.com.au/payphonemenu.htm
and:
http://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/Our%20Organisation%2FFaculties%2FBusiness%2FSchools%20and%20Groups%2FBusiness%20Online%2FInformation%20and%20Services%2FFor%20Students%2FInternational%20Student%20Handbook%2FLiving%20in%20Melbourne/
http://www.primustel.com.au/cards/usage.htm"
+2
2 mins
a help phone
:)
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 14:57:07 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Heritage:
blue = 5.a. Gloomy; depressed. See Synonyms at depressed. b. Dismal; dreary: a blue day.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 14:57:07 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Heritage:
blue = 5.a. Gloomy; depressed. See Synonyms at depressed. b. Dismal; dreary: a blue day.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
nyamuk
: On USian university campuses these are sometimes called 'rape-phones'
11 mins
|
|
thanks
|
|
| agree |
pike
: in Croatia this term is used for phones where you can contact volunteers who offer counselling to rape or violence victims...(not very elegantly written...hate these small windows where I can't see what I've entered)
29 mins
|
|
thanks
|
+2
4 mins
Pippin Michelli
Native in English
&
English
Art & architectural history, methodology
Native in: English 
Works in: French to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
19
Clearly marked phone
Presumably, this is the only blue phone around, while the other (black?) phones are reserved for staff use only.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Dorene Cornwell
: I do not see any reason to think this refers to anything but the color of the phoneset. Do blue phones have some special meaning in Australia?
4 mins
|
| agree |
Heidi Stone-Schaller
: yes, I think it refers to the color.
43 mins
|
7 mins
Nancy Bonnefond
France
France
Native in English
&
English
France
TRADUIRE C'EST COMMUNIQUER
Native in: French , English
Works in: English to French, French to English, French
a phone for special purposes
N
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 15:23:45 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Since this phone is of a blue color, I think it it reserved for special purposes. Otherwise they they wouldn\'t have it differenciated it from the regular phone.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 15:23:50 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Since this phone is of a blue color, I think it it reserved for special purposes. Otherwise they they wouldn\'t have differenciated it from the regular phone.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 15:23:45 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Since this phone is of a blue color, I think it it reserved for special purposes. Otherwise they they wouldn\'t have it differenciated it from the regular phone.
--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2003-12-02 15:23:50 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------
Since this phone is of a blue color, I think it it reserved for special purposes. Otherwise they they wouldn\'t have differenciated it from the regular phone.
14 mins
maybe in Australia a "blue phone" is a free phone
or something of that nature. When Down Under wakes up again, maybe someone will know!
+2
25 mins
security phone / emergency phone
A kind of a help phone as has already bean offered.
Its a colour chosen for a security phone, although in this passage it appears it is also being used for a general purpose phone. So I'm not sure why its just not called a white courtesy phone, after all you can make emergencey calls on a courtesy phone.
As noted above I remember these phones being called rape-phones in school because they were located along dark pathways.
Free blue security phones are located across the campus for information or emergencies.
-http://www.umpa.unimelb.edu.au/360/looking.html
-http://www.yale.edu/securityawareness/bluephones.html
Its a colour chosen for a security phone, although in this passage it appears it is also being used for a general purpose phone. So I'm not sure why its just not called a white courtesy phone, after all you can make emergencey calls on a courtesy phone.
As noted above I remember these phones being called rape-phones in school because they were located along dark pathways.
Free blue security phones are located across the campus for information or emergencies.
-http://www.umpa.unimelb.edu.au/360/looking.html
-http://www.yale.edu/securityawareness/bluephones.html
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
John Bowden
3 hrs
|
| agree |
Premier Focus
: http://www.yale.edu/securityawareness/bluephones.html has a picture of such a blue phone.
2 days 4 hrs
|
1 day 6 hrs
"blue laws" phone
The "blue laws" (out of date in most places) had to do with maintaining the morality of the public.
The reference to restricted hours of operation may be an elucidation of these blue laws. (They were the laws that forbade the operation of businesses on Sunday, for example.)
The reference to restricted hours of operation may be an elucidation of these blue laws. (They were the laws that forbade the operation of businesses on Sunday, for example.)
Something went wrong...