For Just The Cost Of A (Starbucks) Coffee A Day, You Could Save A Pay Phone Booth...

from the save-the-booths! dept

Tue, Sep 2nd 2008 10:48pm — Mike Masnick

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.

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Filed Under: adoption, phone booths, saving

27 Comments

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wasnt me!, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:07am

since ppl don't need them any more why bother keeping them?
just send a couple to a museum and move on.
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Mike F.M, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:22am

Vandalism?
My guess is that £500 doesn't include the inevitable vandalism that will take place on that phonebox.

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.
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Brian, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:47am

The Staple of Our Society
Over here in LA, public phones are just used for crack deals. As you may or may not know, that's a multi-million (billion?) dollar industry which in part pays for our police departments.

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!
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Peter Thomas, 3 Sep 2008 @ 12:50am

Re: The Staple of Our Society
Drug dealers make money through phone booths?

I've personally moved onto using a cell phone. Why are drug dealers so behind the times?
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Enrico Suarve, 3 Sep 2008 @ 1:02am

Red Phone Booths?
Outside London you'd be lucky to see one - they were all replaced with souless aluminium ones over a decade ago (OK a few villages got to keep them as Mike F.M states but very few)

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'
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Peet McKimmie (profile), 3 Sep 2008 @ 1:56am

Re:
So, you want to further disenfranchise those of us who choose not to be encumbered by a mobile 'phone?

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.
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Anarchy_Creator, 3 Sep 2008 @ 2:35am

Re:
And just where do you expect Clark Kent to change into Superman, and help out during a disaster a McDonald's restroom?
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.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 2:37am

Re: Re:
Even cheeper to put the mobile phone mast at one side and cover the whole thing from there.
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edwarddupre.com, 3 Sep 2008 @ 3:17am

Great idea
Since most everyone has cellular phones why not use the idea of sponsoring them and then all of the bums that don't work can use them.
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SteveD, 3 Sep 2008 @ 4:09am

Re: Red Phone Booths?
Enrico is right; the red phone box in the village where I grew up was replaced years ago, long before anyone had a mobile phone.

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.
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Jim, 3 Sep 2008 @ 5:00am

Re: Re:
If it is so valuable out there then it should be making plenty of money. You have a different situation than what is being discussed here.
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Jim, 3 Sep 2008 @ 5:04am

Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
You have moved onto using a cell phone for your drug deals? I recommend that you find a way to make your calls untraceable before you find your money going to your local public servants. Perhaps you should consider using pay phones?
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US-Brit, 3 Sep 2008 @ 5:13am

Phone Booths
Im English but live in the US and there are restaurants here that have the old Red Phone booth in them for those people wanting to make a call while they are there. The only problem is that the loudest most annoying people dont bother. They just shout into their phone. I would like to see more of that though. Even in businesses. Its just a quiet place to take a call and not annoy everyone around you.
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Steven, 3 Sep 2008 @ 5:54am

Why should the local government care?
It really bugs me when this kind of thing is assumed to be a role government should play. I can't think of any reason any government should hand over any cash for something like this. They have enough real problems to deal with rather than waste money on crap like this. I just hope none of the local councils fall for it.
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John Duncan Yoyo, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:16am

Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
Drug dealers use burner cell phones. Buy cheap and toss after awhile.

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:18am

I dont understand . . .
Why dont the protectioners of pay phones, simply follow the model of the RIAA and declare cell phones illegal and thier use immoral?
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hegemon13, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:21am

Re: Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
Um, that's called an illegal wiretap, and I would hope that any cop who tried it would get to spend time behind bars themselves.
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hegemon13, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:24am

Why maintain the phone?
If it is the aesthetic appeal of the phone booths that people want, why maintain the phone? Why not just declare them a historic display and maintain only the booth itself? It would be MUCH cheaper for them, and it would not be outside the realm of what is already done. No different, really, than maintaining pieces of urban "artwork" (do they have those all over European cities the way they do here in the US?).
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Sierra Night Tide, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:26am

recycle not dump -- too much trash
"changing phone booths into places for mobile phone callers to go, so they're not quite so annoying" I like this idea and the others. The last thing city and country dumps need is anther freight load of metal, glass and plastic crap the world will never use again.
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Haywood, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:31am

I have no cell phone
I don't want one, I can't imagine a situation that would change that. I hear from the folks I care about sufficiently over a land line, or in person. I don't use phone booths much either, but it was reassuring to know they were there. I feel very strongly that Cell phones are taking away the last bit of civility left in society, and would be a hypocrite to use one.
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US-Brit, 3 Sep 2008 @ 6:48am

Not to mention what i would give to have them througout airports. After all how many hours have you all spent with a finger in one ear and a cell phone to the other waiting for your plane and trying to do business. Wouldnt you like a quiet place to perform business.
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nasch, 3 Sep 2008 @ 7:20am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
It's only illegal if they don't have a warrant.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 7:37am

Bring back the British "Police Box"!

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.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:40am

Re: Re: Re: The Staple of Our Society
pre-paid cell phones paid for with cash can be had for
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MCT, 3 Sep 2008 @ 9:34am

Dr. Who?
I mean really, how would it work if Dr. Who just pulled out his trusty flip phone and dematerialized to another destination? Talk about disenchantment!!!
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Eclecticdave (profile), 5 Sep 2008 @ 12:18pm

Small Villages
I get the feeling this is purely for the benefit of small villages than anywhere else.

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.
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Gone are phone booths long time ago, 29 Mar 2009 @ 2:34am

gone already ...
Phone Booths disappeared here in Finland already so long time ago that i cannot even remember seeing one!

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.
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