The slow decline of those unprofitable red boxes

When was the last time you used a public payphone? When you tried to use the phone, did it work? According to BT, the use of public pay-phones is in rapid decline and they argue that they can no longer afford to sustain the loss-making pay-phone network.

BT has removed more than 30,000 under-used kiosks since 2002 but two-thirds of the 61,700 payphones remaining are unprofitable, it says. It is trying to put pressure on the telephones regulator (Ofcom) to rethink rules that force BT to fund and maintain the phones.

BT will need to prove to Ofcom that, in an age of mobile phones, wi-fi & Blackberrys, payphones no longer play the vital social role that they once did.

BT has been responsible for providing and maintaining public call boxes, even where they are unprofitable, since it was privatised in 1984. The commitment is one of several universal service obligations (USOs) aimed at ensuring that everyone has access to basic telephone services at an affordable price.

Apparently, almost no adults use payphones as their main phone and takings from kiosks have plummeted. Nearly 12,000 of its call boxes, BT says, take less than £100 a year.

It will be interesting to see this story develop.

The BBC website has a really good vox pop article here that tries to understand which customers still use phone boxes - and why?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7228184.stm