LONDON | With the generalization of cell phones, they were promised to a certain end: thousands of British telephone booths will finally be maintained, especially in rural areas, the telecoms authority announced on Tuesday.
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Once ubiquitous in the UK landscape, the famous red payphones are now down to around 21,000 nationwide, with over 96% of the UK population having a cell phone. The BT operator is currently evaluating those which are no longer useful and will be taken out of service.
The regulator, Ofcom, on Tuesday announced new rules that should protect “around 5,000 phone booths in the UK”.
These 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.
“Some of the phone booths we plan to protect are used to make a relatively small number of calls. But if any of those calls are from a child in distress, an accident victim, or someone contemplating suicide, this public hotline can serve as a lifeline at a time when we is in great need of it, ”said Selina Chadha, Ofcom’s director of connectivity in a statement.
“We also want to make sure that people without mobile coverage, often in rural areas, can still make calls. At the same time, we plan to equip the new telephone booths with WiFi and free 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.