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Excellent news. The sooner BT remove the one near my house, the sooner the "ice cream van" can stop delivering the local pondlife their fixes.
BT has had a monopoly for years and is hardly suffering. If they cannot maintain the phone box, they should not be allowed the privileged status they have enjoyed for many decades.They have already shown utter contempt for their loyal customer base in the last few years with the amount of key services they have outsourced to other counties....... with the resulting huge degradation of overall customer service.....Just ask any BT customer who is suffering poor broadband service issues......and the time and effort needed to resolve said issues
Call boxes are a British tradition and BT should be compelled to keep them with the massive revenue they make from their monopolistic legacy.
Without phone boxes, where would we vomit when drunk, urinate when there were too many people about to do it on the street, and with the old enclosed style bus shelters gone, where are todays teenagers meant to have sex at night when its raining?
It was already identified earlier this month the youth of the UK endure really unpleasant times, and who are we to deprive them of the delights of discovering that some things were impossible without having to open the phone box door slightly?
Maybe only 3 phone calls a year, but how often were they used as a toilet?
Use them or lose them.
They still need to be kept in the remote areas, especially as mobile phone coverage in most remote areas is either pathetic or non-existant.
I was once up in Glencoe and had no coverage on my mobile when the car broke down. Thank god there was a phone box.
I will be sad to see them go really, as kids we had so much fun in them, they were a rain shelter at times, a source of skill in seeing if we could be quick enough to 'tap the line', a source of fun when we called the operator and told her "Get off the line, my mammies trying to hang oot her washing" my how funny that was at 8 years old! What fun seeing if we could beat the Guiness book of records by squashing as many people in as possible. A place we met dates outside.
Of course as we got older, we realised why these phone boxes smelled like hell. They were also near the village pub and their function after dark was to pee in or vomit in or vandalise.
Yes I will miss them :)
Let's all use a phonebox this year and keep them going. Their batteries don't run out like mobiles.
The 40p min charge is a disgrace. Cut it and use would increase far more.
Keep them in rural locations .... but we don't really need them in towns and cities. Plus it stops the local pushers using it for their "drops" like the one I saw in Leith recently.
We have too many phones in my family. five landlines (for the households) and the rest mobiles. I have two, one with a camera, one just a bog-standard. My wife has one and the eldest has three I know of. How many in YOUR families??
Public phonebox?? We'll get used to them not being there any more. They're not THAT ingrained in the public consciousness if we don't use them.
Call me on your mobile, baby Don't bother with BTCall me on your camphone, babySend your pic to meSho me where you'r calling fromSo, I know where you're coming from Call me on the line Call me call me any anytime Call me my love you can call me any day or night Call me
Call me with your kisses babyYour ringtones really rocksCall me, tell me that you want meBut not in a callboxPeople call me, I don't know why Do I need an alibiCall me on the line Call me call me any anytime Call me oh my love When you're ready we can share the cost Call me
Ooh, he speaks the languages of love Ooh, amore, chiamami chiamami. Oo, appelle-moi mon cherie, appelle-moi Anytime anyplace anywhere anyway Anytime anyplace anywhere any day, anyway Call me my life Call me call me any anytime Call me for a laugh Call me call me for some overtime Take your mobile out and show it off Put it on the scene Phoneboxes went out in the nineteen nineties There's be no in between I know what your ringtones mean Call me call me any anytime Call me for a ride Call me call me for some overtime Call me in my life Call me call me in a sweet design Call me call me for your lover's lover's alibi Call me on the line Call me call me any anytime Call me Oh, call me, ooh ooh ah. Call me my love. Call me, call me any anytime.
*Adapted from "Call Me" by the luscious Debbie Harry and Blondie.
These phone boxes have saved lives.In rural areas where no mobile provision exists they are the only contact with emergency services .Some of the boxes MUST survive.The government should intervene here and subsidise any cost incurred on a social need basis.WE do not measure the cost of human life in sterling.I cant help thinking this sounds like the rail closures (which we are now re opening at high cost) or the prefab houses which we demolished even though they proved to be the best value for money buildings ever and lasted far longer than predicted, and we still have a housing deficit.Or numerous buildings which could be sold to first time buyers but we demolish them.You should never destroy anything.The day will come when its wanted, although it will require modification no doubt.As long as it conforms or adapts to safety requirements keep it!
People who live on the High Street cannot and do not represent everybody,and should not presume that their views encompass all considerations. On some of Scotlands most remote parts the local phone box is the ONLY communication device which will always be available. Removal cannot be a step forward.
Our local box is a mass of hanging wires and bits of broken casings and its more than likely down to the local youth, all of whom have the latest model of mobile and no doubt filming their actions.Given the multiple vendors in the market today, just why should BT have to pay for upkeep - and when it comes to this -"local authorities may veto the closure", then if the council has the say, then surely the council should pay.
I am trying to remember the last time i used a phone box and i can't. In the capital i would have thought they were well used by tourists and students from abroad, but i could be wrong.Most of Scotland is a tourist mecca so thought the same would apply throughout.
The only time I would ever use a phone box these days is if it was an absolote emergency.
The are poorly maintained, often used as toilets and are not exactly convenient.
There is no need for phone boxes in built up areas.
Keep them in rural areas and scrap the rest. Good post #1. You have my sympathy.
What SHOULD have been today's TOP story.
Tucked in at the back.
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=298422007
Possibly at hospitals, railway stations, airports, ok.But why is BT the only company which people view as some sort of milch cow which can indefinitely subsidise not only the population at large but also other telecoms companies, all of them with the exception of C&W, foreign owned?Sooner or later BT will be snapped up by the French or Germans or even the Spanish national telecom company.No way will the new owner put up with all the crap BT has to suffer.
This is the cost of security and having an advanced civilised society, there is not microwave cover everywhere, batteries fail etc. Fixed phones are essentials for tourism too. and I do not believe the figure. Lines are not just for a single red box but for communities. Seems like more spin and less service
11 Debbie harry & Blondie would be proud of you,:P
The last time I tried to use a phone box was on the west coast of Mull, and it took my money without allowing the call. I could get through to report the fault, but there was one digit missing from the number, so I was not allowed either to report the fault or get connected to the number I was trying to call - just as well there was no life at risk! No mobile connection there.
#19 good point the mobile companies work to the 95% rule & have no intention of providing 100% blanket coverage. Also not all 3G systems can use GPS to pinpoint mobile locations in the event of a 999 call. It's a major sticking point with newer VoIP systems too.
If BT follow normal procedures, the Rural ones will be the FIRST to go, leaving the ones in the densest population centres - just in case someone can't find a pub to go to.
Why should it be up to BT to subsidise these loss-making call boxes? BT ain't the GPO any more. It hasn't been a state-owned body for some time. BT gets little in return for taking responsibility for maintaining the boxes. BT is a PLC whose main aim is making money for its shareholders. Don't like it? Blame the Tories.
As a BT Payphone Engineer until the end of the last century. I was proud of the service we provided with fast repair times and some boxes took very large amounts of money. But as has been said nearly everyone has at least one mobile now. The charge of 40p shocked me when I visited a payphone on the M6 in January it was still 10p when I retired. But thats life remember the telex now long gone replaced by fax then internet. Just progress I am afraid. Dont think New World or BT Payphones can keep up this public service much longer even if they double up as internet, ATM or vending machine. Although it will mean better locations for emergency calls from mobiles. Or a network of street fire alarm type call points such as was prevalent before WW2. It will also deny vandals a target and vandals one less target. Lets face it the Call Box like the Police Box is history.
Aye...and with each phone call costing the customer, unlike in America and Germany, there's no way a pub (or any other company or person) is going to allow you to walk in, saying my car broke down might I use your phone? Some people don't have mobile, some areas can't get a signal carried, credit might be low on the mobile, what about emergencies, and what about tourists and students and just the general public needing to make a phone call!!!I say keep 'em! Spend that money on CLEANING them or putting in a door which requires you to put in £1...once you're in the door, you get it back. I doubt some drunk would farf around in his/her pockets for £1 just to use the toilet!!!!!
maybe they should install a mini-bar.
in Germany you can purchase cigarettes, beer, etc from roadside vending machines. Why not convert the little superman changing rooms to profit making mini markets- just a phone call away.
Surely it would be better if the mobile phone companies worked harder at achieving 100% coverage, then BT could remove all the eyesores which most phone boxes are.
Privatisation is increasingly meaning reduced essential services.
What about the vulnerable people in our society?
Not everyone has a telephone, a computer or a measuring tape and scales to measure and weigh letters. Even shopping now carries a warning, enter here and expect to scan your own purchases.
One day I saw smoke pouring out of a house and I ran to the local phone box only to find it broken. Fortunately a nearby shop was open and that vital call was made to the fire service.
This is big businesses trying to get out of maintenance work which costs!
Profits, profits, profits - is it any wonder some people are beginning to think the UK is going to the dogs.
Large companies are continually eroding important essential services.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article...
BT profits set to hit 6 billion.
our son is on a working holiday in Scotland and every sunday we call him at a certain time, if the weather is tooo bad, we call him on his mobile, but otherwise we call him at a public phone (he gave us the number) and he waits at this phone for our call from S.A My point is that to call from al land line to a land line is so much cheaper and we can talk just that little longer than on a mobile. So pleazzzzz the old fashioned "tickybox" still has it's plus points for those who realy needs them! Just a thought!
Unfortunately Helen the population density of the Highland region grampian region and island communities coupled to the terrain and the very low range available on the wavelengths used would require investment which could never ever be justified. Half of Scotland does not have recognisable TV coverage (apart from satellite systems) and even radio coverage is patchy.Unless using a satellite link communication in such areas will always be difficult and financially impossible to justify.100% coverage will never never be possible,never mind practical.Perhaps the answer is retain the boxes in rural communities but include a camera which snaps every one who enters.When you discover a vandalised box report it asap or it will be you who are reported ! Now theres an incentive to coperate with the forces of law and order! Ckearly the vandal was the last person before the person who reported the vandalism (or the same person ).I doubt that many would report their own vandalism and certainly not twice.We would need more toilets though.Perhaps we could use the existing unwanted boxes(just as we do currently)!
Hi Faye 30#
The government should do again what brought them into power and claim a large percentage of large windfall company profits such as that of Barclays, along with obscene payments to Directors.
Big business who can afford it should pay for public services on a sliding scale; we are increasingly forgetting the old and infirm and those that cannot look after themselves.
Unfortunately it looks as if the Tories will be back in power within the next 18 months and their record over the last 45 years is ten times worse!!
Blair and Brown seem to have forgotten why they were voted into power and if they are not careful they will follow Thatcher and her cronies!
#34 JMG. Devolution must be an open sore for Labour. The West Lothian question still hasn't been answered.
Labour's core voters - Scotland - have been ignored, England & Wales too.
With the Devolution jeanie now firmly out of the bottle, Independence in Scotland might mean Middle England voters will ensure a Tory vote for England for evermore! That's what Indpendence in Scotland would mean for labour voters South of the border.
Better keep these telephone boxes! The kids could purchase a few grouped together because buying a house is now for the rich.
Debt is sadly what a lot of young people have to look forward to and that's very sad. Hope and aspiration for the young is essential.
Blair and Brown have done what the Tories wanted to do but were too afraid to do PFI, i.e. privatisation of our health service and education.
Big business owning Schools, soon they will be indoctrinating the kids in the classroom.
The Regulator should hang up on this call from BT!
As the primary service provider - and, in many areas still - the monopoly provider (i.e. market share of 30% plus) - BT is under an obligation to provide a public payphone service. This why there are very busy (and profitable) BT telephone boxes in travel locations, city centres and public buildings as well as the little used boxes in others. BT's public payphone service probably loses money overall. This exercise of revealing how little revenue certain booths bring in is an attempt to close down all the unprofitable booths while maintaining their hold on the profitable booths. For every 'social' telephone booth closed down, BT should have to give up one of the more profitable booths to a competitor, since BT is simply maintaining its unfair advantage in those locations.
#28. Superman hasn't changed in a phone booth for decades. Get with the programme, huh?
Neither my husband nor I have a mobile phone.
We have noticed that most mobile use is insipid "hi, where are you?" chatter. Phone conversations have become as addictive an exercise as the constant sipping of bottled water.
I last used a phone box at an airport to call my daughter. Yes, it cost 50 pence and was it worth it for my urgent call. A mobile costs at least 40 pounds per month. A phone box call is cheap.
In our neighborhood we take pride in picking up litter and keeping the bus stop bench free of grafitti. It is such a little effort...maybe 15 minutes each week. It takes more effort to complain about the filth than to adopt a place and put some pride into it.
A village screams with sarcasm or shines with consideration. I wish youth of today would expend some of their angst about everything on being part of the solution to litter & graffiti. Replace all the ***king this and ***king that with a bucket of soapy water. Then stand back and be proud, rather than angry.
The last time I tried to use public phones was on holiday, to phone home - and each of FIVE times, in five different telephone boxes, the machine gulped the 40p, but didn't connect the call.
Phoning the operators produced "sorry, we can't (CAN'T not WON'T) connect you, but we can send you a voucher by post for the money you have lost". Which was of no help whatsoever of course, since I wanted to speak to someone at home, to make sure everything there was okay, which a refund wouldn't help.Even asking them to connect me first, then having me put more money in the box didn't help.They said there would be a £5 charge for the operator making the connectionON TOP of the call charge.
Result? I did ask them to send the refund vouchers, each of which came under separate cover, so 5 envelopes, 5 vouchers and 5 lots of postage.And I asked my hotel if I could phone from their reception.
And they wonder why the phone boxes are losing money!!!
Keep remaining phone booths for public safety reasons, but don't stick BT with the cost of a government responsibility.
#37 "SUPERMAN can take his time getting changed. " I didn't print it- blame the time warp on the Scotsman.
Even here in the US it is hard to find the pay phones like we used to. I had to go all over one day searching for one when my cell phone died.
BT is just looking for more money for the CEO's and High management to put in their pockets. USA the same way. It has become rather difficult for our CEO's to manage a living on just a Hundred Million dollars a year. So they just keep cutting workers salaries. Cutting life saving call box's, means more money for them to suffer on.No need to expect anything from Politicians. They are also paid out of these profits.
#30 Faye.
hey man ...sorry woman!!you wrote:"What about the vulnerable people in our society?"
What about them Faye . You and millions like you, are going to do nothing about these vulnerable people, except to squawk about them.
As for your statement on profits, get it right lady .The UK is going like the USA (my country), where profits come before people every time.
Thats the reality, so get a grip, and stop your whining.
Have a nice day
GC
# 44 Mishanti,
Hey man ,
Your cell phone died (stopped working) because you forgot to charge it, or the battery crapped out.
Stop complaining, there are no pay phones in the US, and the few left, are used by illegal aliens to conduct drug transactions.
Welcome to the American Dream
better still :welcome to the UK Dream !!!
#44 Mishanti
addendum:
"Welcome to the UK dream" where pay phone booths are use to vomit in.
So it costs BT 1600 pounds in maintainance costs per phone box. What exactly do they do for 1600 pounds?
If they only make 1.20 from each box, that's a loss of 1598.80.
If they reduced the price of the calls to a reasonable amount (eg 5p) they would probably have more calls made, thus, while perhaps not making a profit, at least they would lose less.
Maybe they could convince the police to bring back their boxes which had emergency telephones in them.
"Public" telephone... history, mates. Move on.
What about foreign travellers? Not everyone's cell phone works abroad. I've often been grateful for a public phone in France and in Scotland.
To all the posters who claim BT have no duty to provide phone boxes your wrong it was one of the obligations put upon them when privatisied, by trying to highlight the infrequent use of some of the phone boxes whilst wanting to cherrypick the profitable ones they are seeking exemption from providing this service, which this article isn't very clear on. At billion £'s profit this is sheer greed & an attempt to wheedle their way out of duty imposed on them as part of the privatisation. The local loop was bought & paid for many times over before BT was privatisied but they still charge me for line rental !!
How many lightbulbs does it take to change the world?
Now that is an earth shattering and interesting story.
Get back to the COWS, and either stop them farting, or find a way to harvest their methane farts, to burn and heat homes.
Have a nice Day
46. GalacticCannibal. Wrong! I help plenty of vulnerable people in my work.
But that's what happens GC when you squawk about someone whom you know nothing about.
I think in the wild west its called shooting from the hip!
As for my statement on profits, I got it right.
That's why here in Europe we prefer a fairer society, you will be old one day, maybe you are but, your mind hasn't quite yet caught up!
Sorry,GC, Europeans rejected the American way - profits before people.
That's why many Europeans are squawking at politicians and that's why policitians are moaning and wondering why their "party faithful" have deserted them in droves.
BT bought this network from the UK taxpayer and they had conditions imposed on them with the purchase, for the uninformed like GC, that is, to provide an overall service.
Now the fat cat CEO wants more! Well sorry GC, the UK public won't let them get away with it without a cheep, or squawk.
Maybe that's why the once great USA is now not so great; too few people like you GC are sitting down doing nothing and taking it, instead of squawking when it matters!
i think they should just get rid of phone boxes everyone has access to mobile phones kids drug adicts homeless people selling the big issue old age pensioners. The economic arguements and social arguments for keeping them are a waste of time seriously if only three calls are made on the phone why keep it. If other telephone providers are asked to share the cost then that means that everyone has to pay for phone boxes they dont use. social arguments dont cut it me that people have a right to access a public phone as pay as you go phones are that cheap now less than £20 to buy that anyone nowadays who has not got a mobile phone does not wont one by choice
#56 Faye
Right on Faye , I know nothing about you and visa versa. Presumptions are a dime a dozen in these threads, and frequently wrong, as you have shown this time.
no i am not yet an old fart but eventually I will join that smelly lot. I suppose you would say I am a young fart.
On two recent visits to the UK with my father , I noticed a clear American form of doing business there. And it twinkled of "profit before people" ,like the neon signs over your copy-cat fast food feeding troughs. KFC, Mc Donalds, Subway Sandw, Burger King.All are American, and absolutely "profit before people" type businessess. Why did you let them in?.
If you live in a cocoon, and rely on "after the fact" journalism as in the Scotsman, or your TV set, to get accurate information, you will be mislead .
As for vurnable people, let nature's law of, "natural selection" take care of them.
I happen to live in the World's largest Lunatic Asylum.......California. "Where your on your own babe"And I love it, its mountains . its beaches , its deserts, its sunshine, its wierd people, and its problems, and the 320 day sunshine every year.
But if California were a nation, we would rank No 6 in the world economy.We are also the World's biggest investor (for money spent) on Stem Cell research.
And our Golden gate Bridge 71 years old, is not falling down, or corroding at its base.
So much for our beautiful sunny Lunatic Asylum.
How about your's , with the Queen and her seven castles. Did she buy them or is she renting, or just sucking of the UK taxpayers.
#GC 58. I am far from being easily influenced by the trash which fills that great Scottish invention, the TV. Take the telephone and everything else that you enjoy, if it wasn't for the Scots whaur wid ye be?
http://mymultiplesclerosis.co.uk/big-ideas/scottish-inven...
It is so crass of you GC to bring an 80 year old woman into the conversation!
One who has devoted her life to the people of the UK.
Okay she might have cost money but she has also earned a lot too, that's why Americans like to watch the changing of the guards and view her seven castles.
Look one day you maybe down on your luck and you might remember this exchange of words and change your hardened attitude.
I’ve lost count the number of Americans I’ve met who’ve moved away from concrete cities to Europe and its wide open spaces so that they can get away from the man eat man lifestyle, where money is more important than anything.
It’s nice to have some morals and ethics, you know. All this stem cell research, is it ethical? Patenting the blood of indigenous peoples isn't ethical is it?
When I was last in California yeah it was nice but somehow it lacked something.
Culture is everywhere here, that's why so many Americans come to see the old world, to learn about past ancestors. Americans are always welcomed in Scotland.
We like to give guid folk a good time but, we don't want the dirty business tricks of your corporate companies.
In Scotland we can't guarantee Californian sunshine but we can offer some of the best scenery in the world with some of the most beautiful shades of green adorning our trees, hills and mountains.
But we won't stand back let your corporate companies destroy bonnie Scotland.
Let's not forget those pearly grey Scottish skies which must be a relief to those sunburnt Californian eyes.
I
#59 Faye
Tut, Tut Faye, you should know that culture abounds in the 'Good Old US of A'It can be found everywhere--in tubs of Yoghurt.
The Pay Phone will soon be a memory here in the States, like in Scotland...it will go the way of the milkman, and the iceman...fading away into the oblivion some call history...
Well spoken, Faye. Good emergency phone coverage is very important but public phones are not available the way they used to be.
In the Highlands and rural areas, I suppose ceildhs (sp?) will not go out of style as long as television coverage is lacking.
America was the beneficiary of Scottish-born Andrew Carnegie's libraries (last century but good works are sometimes long remembered).
A lot of Americans do go to Europe or South America to experience a sense of community. Some volunteer in their communities but the high degree of mobility of the population makes maintaining friendships challenging.
The Queen is uncommonly dutiful and in this world I think she makes a role model for responsible conduct. Few Americans are born into difficult jobs although some born into well-known families have a lot to cope with.
560 quid to use the phone - pay me only 260 and I'll not use it ;-)
What a load of rubbish, Their time is up. Keep a few as tourist attractions in places where they can be seen and as needed in rural areas.
Having said that, if we were a caing society no one whould be refused the use of a phone in a genuine emergency
There was a time you could walk up to a house and ask someone to call for assistance. Now you will probably get blown away by a crack user. That is if you can get to a house befor being mugged. Most of our police force is now over in the sand toilet.
#65 US Cavalry:You wrote:"Now you will probably get blown away by a crack user".
That statement does not tell the whole story.
You stand a much higher chance of getting blown away, by anyone of the millions of paronid redneck Americans ,if you approach their home and they do not know you. Especially in the evenings.
Just try and come close to the "People's House" (The White House) with a camera.
Its no different to a military fortress. And its occupant our fool Pres, GWB lives inside a military bubble there .
Bye the way the US Cavalry is extinct.
Did someone say all Police Boxes had been removed?
I definitely saw Dr Who get into one the other night.
BT could be sensible and replace phone boxes with local hot spots for mobile or wifi-phones. These could be in pubs, shops or better local post offices or even in remote locations (car parks).
That way you still get phone access but without much of the maintenace of a phone box and equally with nothing to attract the low-life.
Problems with having to have a mobile still apply, but then in the good old days how often did you fine a phone box not working anyway.
