Half of remaining UK phone boxes to be scrapped

[Ian]

The BBC reports that 20,000 public phone boxes will be removed from the streets of the UK over the next five years, as they get so little use. This figure represents half of all UK public phone boxes.

Out of the 40,000 phone booths still working, 7,000 are the traditional red phone boxes designed in 1935 to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V.

More than half of phone boxes lose money and the number of calls is declining by more than 20% per year.

The cost of maintaining telephone boxes annually is about £6m. BT is responsible for repairing damage to the kiosks, including replacing glass panes and broken receivers, as well as removing graffiti, rubbish and human waste.

Read more at the BBC here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40934210

 

[Urmas]

Eh? Here, most were gone by 2007 and the last one by 2009.

Good riddance if you ask me...

 

[Abarbarian]

Eh? Here, most were gone by 2007 and the last one by 2009.

Good riddance if you ask me...

Yeah but what you have to remember @Urmas is that you have a decent government that at least tries to look out for its citizens, whereas we had, Thatcher, Blair , Cameron, May et al.
An your telecommunications is far superior to anything we have in the UK even if we do have ours mainly managed by one of the largest companies of its type in the world. BT only cares about profit not the consumer.

BT annouces £3bn profits - days after putting customer prices up 15%

To soften the blow, BT is announcing a pledge to repair faults faster and to offer free upgrades.

However, Andrew Griffith, group chief operating officer and chief financial officer at Sky, said BT's plans were a "limited ambition".

"Despite BT's claims, it is clearer than ever that their plans for fibre-to-the-premises broadband will bypass almost every existing UK home," he added.

Admittedly the above was for 2016. Their profits have taken a dive recently but that is because they have been guilty of fiddling the figures and have been caught out and fined.

Funny thing is we the public once owned BT and could with decent management have been reaping the benefits of those large dividend payouts.