For Just The Cost Of A (Starbucks) Coffee A Day, You Could Save A Pay Phone Booth...
from the save-the-booths! dept
It's been nearly a decade or so since the rise of mobile phones began to impact the payphone industry -- and we've seen all sorts of creative attempts to save payphone booths in one form or another -- from turning them into music download stations or WiFi hotspots. Then, there's the idea of simply changing phone booths into places for mobile phone callers to go, so they're not quite so annoying, talking on the phone where everyone can hear them. Over in the UK, things are even worse, as the distinctive red iconic telephone booths has a much stronger cultural connection that has many upset at the demise of the phone booth.So, what BT has come up with a different sort of strategy for rescuing the red phone booths: getting local gov'ts to pay out of sympathy. Yes, BT is telling local councils that they can "adopt" a red phone booth and keep it alive for just £500 per year (about $1,000). I'm almost surprised they didn't open up the offering to individuals as well. I'm sure there are some folks who would pay to keep the phone booths alive.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: adoption, phone booths, saving
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
just send a couple to a museum and move on.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Way out in the Scottish countryside it's far cheaper to put a 'phone booth in the middle of a moor than a mobile 'phone mast - it just needs a power hook-up and a single copper wire. In unpopulated areas it makes more sense than maintaining a base station that will go largely unused.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I myself have two Cell Phones (one for work & one for personal calls), but there are still many people believe it or not that do not have a Cell Phone.
Not just people in Ghettos, or illegal immigrants either.
Many children/tweens/teens do not have Cell Phones.
Tourists that have Cell Phones that are regionally locked to their homeland.
Anyhow I for one do not think that it's time yet to get rid of these things.
Until mobile phones are so dirt cheap, and either contractless, or fairly contracted, and their coverage is at least 90% of the worlds populated areas we will always need payphones.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Vandalism?
The only red phone boxes I see around don't accept coins, for fear of them being broken into, which practically make them useless.
The only places this will happen is in little villages, where the residents will end up paying for them anyway.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Staple of Our Society
I bet you geniuses never thought of that. How will drug dealers make money? How will our public servants get paid? Anarchy, I tell you!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: The Staple of Our Society
I've personally moved onto using a cell phone. Why are drug dealers so behind the times?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
I just wonder why the cops haven't bugged the phone booths in question. Listening devices in the hardened part of the phone, a camera where they can hide it and it already has a wire to return data to the cops. Detect a person in the booth not on the phone and start monitoring.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Red Phone Booths?
The new ones had the advantage of being cheaper, having the latest logo and being easier to vandalise (way less sturdy)
If a council wants a red one I would suggest they go to the nearest scrap yard, buy one and shove their own phone in it - bound to be cheaper and they get whatever revenue there is
As for individuals owning them I know of a few pubs and people who have done exactly this - no need to involve BT and their 'service'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Red Phone Booths?
All the little glass panes make it very easy to vandalise and very expensive to maintain. Putting the blame on mobiles is a little cheap; society moved on years back.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great idea
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Phone Booths
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why should the local government care?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I dont understand . . .
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why maintain the phone?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
recycle not dump -- too much trash
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have no cell phone
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Then phones would be available for emergencies for the poor and for pretentious nerks who think they are making a statement of somekind by not having cell phones and plus the TARDIS wouldn't look so conspicuous when it comes to earth.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dr. Who?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Small Villages
It sounds as if BT might be planning on phasing out phone boxes entirely, but want to offer the option to small villages to keep their red ones if they feel it contributes to the village charm or community or whatever.
IIRC some villages successfully campaigned to keep their red boxes when BT started replacing them with the modern type. This could just be BT recognising the same villages might be likely to take action again if their boxes were threatened.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
gone already ...
I think at Helsinki railway station i saw a couple (probably broken) a few years ago. Helsinki railway station is one of the busiest places in Finland, so that and airports would be the last places i'd expect to see them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]