Instead Telstra, which is required by government to keep payphones operational, is adding value to the services.

The telco has flicked the switch on two public payphones in Civic which are now Wi-Fi hotspots with a 50 metre range.

The free trial overlaps with the existing free ACT government Wi-Fi network, which is already active in the Canberra CBD.

The move is part of a five-year $100 million strategy to create more than 1000 hotspots across the country before Christmas.

Over the next few weeks, Telstra will activate nine hotspots across Canberra and Queanbeyan.

This trial will remain free until the official launch of a national network in early 2015.

Telstra CountryWide area general manager Larissa Redford said the Canberra trial was the start of an ambitious nationwide plan.

"We are turning on two hotspots in the Canberra CBD and people will be able to access them," she said. "They are just the start of the locations."

Other hotspots in Canberra will include Dickson, Phillip, Kingston, Griffith and two Queanbeyan locations.

The move to add an internet hotspot to payphones comes after decades of decline for the service as people took up mobile phone technology. There are 141 Telstra operated payphones in Canberra and 14 in Queanbeyan.

A Telstra spokesman said there was no demand to remove payphones from Canberra, which indicated strong community support to retain the facilities.

"Telstra continues to supply and maintain public payphones as part of its obligations to the government," he said.

Meanwhile the $3.1 million ACT government network – provided by iiNet – will enable Canberrans to download 100 megabytes of data a day via 745 access points across Canberra.

The first points of the network were turned on at Garema Place last month.