This iconic equipment was doomed to disappear from the landscape, due to the development of mobile phones. Some 5,000 units will however be kept, announced the telecoms authority.
With the spread of cell phones, the famous red British telephone boxes were promised to a certain end. But thousands of them will eventually be maintained, Ofcom announced (in English), national telecoms authority, Tuesday 9 November. There are only around 21,000 left in the whole country, while 96% of the UK population has a mobile phone.
The new rules should protect “around 5,000 telephone booths in the UK”. The BT operator is currently evaluating those which are no longer useful and which will be taken out of service. The cabins will be preserved if their location is not covered by the four mobile telephone networks, if more than 52 calls have been made there during the last twelve months or if exceptional circumstances justify their maintenance. If the cabin is located in a place where there are frequent accidents or suicide attempts, it will also be maintained.
“We also want to make sure that people without mobile coverage, often in rural areas, can still make calls.”, explained Selina Chadha, Director of Connectivity of Ofcom. “At the same time, we plan to equip the new telephone booths with free wifi and chargers.” Others will experience a second life. In recent years, more than 6,000 disused telephone booths have been transformed into libraries, housing defibrillators or even cash dispensers.