BT to axe half of the UK’s telephone boxes

BT (LON:BT.A) announced its decision to scrap over half of the UK’s remaining telephone boxes on Wednesday, in light of decreased usage in recent years.

Many of the iconic red telephone boxes which have become synonymous with the U.K, are set to be removed from unused sites around the country.

According to figures, telephone boxes still are used to make around 33,000 calls a day, yet one third of kiosks are never in use.

In addition, the telephone boxes are increasingly expensive to maintain and repair considering decreasing usage by the public.

The cost of maintaining the kiosks is thought to total around £6 million annually for British Telecom.

“BT is committed to providing a public payphone service, but with usage declining by over 90% in the last decade, we continue to review and remove payphones which are no longer used,” a BT spokesperson said in comments to the BBC.

Consequently, BT will look to remove over 20,000 of the least used telephone boxes over the course of the next five years.

Back in 1992 before the proliferation of the mobile phone, there were a total of 92,000 boxes across the U.K.

However, with mobile phones and other electronic devices becoming increasingly ubiquitous, the need for telephone box has significantly lessened in recent years.

Nevertheless, the UK’s telecom regulator Ofcom will oversee the process to ensure that local areas have access to vital telephone box services.

According to regulations, BT is allowed to remove any boxes if there are two within within 400m walking distance of a particular site.

Telephone boxes are thought to still be significantly used by the elderly and in the case of emergencies, should a mobile phone be out of battery or out of access.

In a bid to adapt to evolving technology, BT has begun to introduce high-tech InLinkUK kiosks that provide ultra-fast 1Gbps Wi-Fi hotspots, information touchscreen, free UK landline and mobile phone calls, and two USB smartphone charging ports.

Currently there are in excess of 750 InLinkUK kiosks are being installed in the capital and other cities across the UK.