About 5,000 public phone boxes around the United Kingdom will be protected from closure in areas of high accident rates or poor mobile signals.
Photo via Dezeen
According to The Guardian, removal of the telephone boxes will be banned in areas where they are still needed, namely locations with poor mobile coverage, high accident or suicide rates, or higher-than-average use.
British Telecommunications (BT) has been decommissioning payphones that are deemed to be no longer needed as phone box use has plummeted as 96% of UK adults now own a mobile phone.
However, local organisations can buy a red phone box and use it for something else. Over 6,000 phone boxes have been converted to other uses, such as community libraries, or to house public defibrillators.
Photo via Bloomberg
Selina Chadha, the Ofcom director of connectivity said that they are planning to protect some of the red telephone boxes for emergencies.
“If one of those calls is from a distressed child, an accident victim or someone contemplating suicide, that public phone line can be a lifeline at a time of great need.
“We also want to make sure that people without mobile coverage, often in rural areas, can stull make calls. At the same time, we’re planning to support the rollout of new phone boxes with free wifi and charging,” she said.
As of today, there are about 21,000 call boxes around the country.
Aww, that’s so sad!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
