The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?

[emeritus]

A couple of years ago I found one of the original BT holographic phone cards when having a clear-out, still sealed in its cellophane wrapper.

[Refugee]

I have got a couple of plane green phone cards also still sealed in there wrappers.
They are in a storage box stacked with a few others so they will not be easy to find quickly.

[Terry_VK5TM]

Originally Posted by Richard_FM

I did wonder why BT phased out phonecards when they did.

Mobile phones happened.

According to BT's own reports, the sale of phone cards became uneconomic as mobile phones became popular and they (the cards) were withdrawn in 2002.

[G6Tanuki]

In a few places around 15 years ago there was a trial of BT phone-boxes from which you could also send text-messages.

See https://www.manchestereveningnews.co...booths-1200153

It did nothing to stem the tide of cellular phones.

Another trend seen recently is new 'phone boxes' which are deployed primarily to serve as advertising-sites... https://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/...an-structures/

[Station X]

The last time I used a telephone kiosk was to report a fault on my land line. That must have been at least 25 years ago before I had a mobile phone. The kiosk is still there along with several others in Ipswich.

Telephone kiosks can be useful when travelling abroad, as you can't make speech calls from some Pay As You Go mobiles in some countries.

[AC/HL]

If you have an unwanted one locally it can be adopted, but it depends on public involvement, it won't happen spontaneously: https://business.bt.com/campaigns/co...btb_FURL_adopt
Some of the old fashioned boxes, in city centres mainly, are being replaced by free to use multi function "structures". Don't worry, you don't need a mobile phone (now called a "device") to use one, although headphones may come in handy: https://www.inlinkuk.com/

[ionburn]

One close to us now is the local free book exchange. Excellent idea and much more used that for a phone (or at least for me as I have used it several times). The last time I wanted to use a local phone box I found vandals had removed the microphone, but that was many years ago.

[Dave757]

Hi,

My daughter has a pay and go phone, but never puts any money on it.
Her reasoning is that she can still make emergency calls, and others can
still reach her if necessary, while she is out.

Kind regards
Dave

[Richard_FM]

Originally Posted by Terry_VK5TM

Mobile phones happened.

According to BT's own reports, the sale of phone cards became uneconomic as mobile phones became popular and they (the cards) were withdrawn in 2002.

OK I thought that might be the case.

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by Dave757

Hi,

My daughter has a pay and go phone, but never puts any money on it.
Her reasoning is that she can still make emergency calls, and others can
still reach her if necessary, while she is out.

Kind regards
Dave

All the "outgoing" calls I make from my mobile, are actually incoming.

Let me explain.

I have Raspberry Pi based phone system at home which is dedicated to the Open Source project "FreePBX/Asterisk".

When I want to call someone, I dial a number that reaches my system. My system does not answer this call, it rejects it, waits a couple of seconds, then calls me back I answer this call, and my system plays me a BT style dial-tone I can now dial anywhere I like at VoIP rates. Even though I am paying for two legs of the call bridged together, the total is less than 1p/min when calling another mobile, compared with 15p/min if I was to call the number directly using my mobile credit.

And that's just a small part of what my phone system does.

[electronicskip]

Originally Posted by ionburn

One close to us now is the local free book exchange. Excellent idea and much more used that for a phone (or at least for me as I have used it several times). The last time I wanted to use a local phone box I found vandals had removed the microphone, but that was many years ago.

We also have a telephone box book exchange near to us , ive seen a few around the county.
There was an old style Telephone box thats been derelict for a few years that has only very recently been removed about a mile from me ,not sure why its taken all those years to remove it though.

[emeritus]

I remember registered designs being filed for those Internet payphones by Marconi in the early 2000''s. The only one I saw in the flesh was at Farringdon Underground station in London a short while after.

[Tim]

Although the actual physical enclosure was always called a Kiosk (for stores ordering purposes) they are still referred to as PCO (Public Call Office) on official plans.

[electronicskip]

I remember we had Mercury telephone kiosks in Gloucester for a while , but eventually they disappeared but i think the manhole covers still have mercury written on them even now

[stitch1]

I thought there was a box near me but it’s gone, I had to check on google maps that it did exist, I didn’t notice it had been removed.

Originally Posted by electronicskip

I remember we had Mercury telephone kiosks in Gloucester for a while , but eventually they disappeared but i think the manhole covers still have mercury written on them even now

They were just booths so not much use for anything else, I don’t suppose there’s any left now.
I have a collection of Mercury and Cable & Wireless phone cards, worthless but nice to keep.

A bit like ghost signs Mercury manhole covers can be seen in many city centres, the ducting will still be used.

John

[Paul_RK]

And I've now seen that the box we used earlier in the year is slated for removal... seems as though we made our final intended domestic relocation just in time

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by electronicskip

I remember we had Mercury telephone kiosks in Gloucester for a while , but eventually they disappeared but i think the manhole covers still have mercury written on them even now

A company I worked for had a contract with Mercury (MCL) to maintain those public phones. Coincidently our head office was in Gloucester.


Those phones accepted credit/debit cards too. The SLA we offered to
Mercury must have been seven days a week, because the one and only
time I was called out to one of their payphones was on a Sunday
morning, I had to drive from Manchester to Liverpool to deal with a
"stuck card" I could only imagine that must be the phone card, as the
credit card slot allowed you to withdraw it at any time, the callout
didn't seem to make sense financially.

When I got to the city centre phone, the customer was long gone, and
there was indeed a credit card stuck in the slot, I pulled it out with
pliers. Female name on it. There was a cigarette burn in the face of
the card that had made it impossible to withdraw it by hand.

I dropped it through her bank's letterbox with a note.

[G4YVM David]

Originally Posted by cheerfulcharlie

Now the dread is beaking down somewhere in the middle of nowhere and the mobile is out of action for some reason.

This is why God gave us shortwave radio...

[Graham G3ZVT]

Originally Posted by G4YVM David

This is why God gave us shortwave radio...

We drove down to Torbay for our honeymoon in 1979 and I took my 2200GX along, much to the annoyance of my new XYL.

However, she would be the first to say it was a good job we did,

I must have got the dregs of a petrol station (fuel shortage remember?) clogging up my carburetor and I managed to contact someone on S20 and convince him to call the AA.

[Peter.N.]

Our local phone box in Wootton Fitzpaine has been converted into a library, it's in the centre of the village outside the village hall.

I have noticed a few still working phone boxes in some of the more rural areas, North Yorkshire and the far North of Scotland. In most cases it seems due to the very hilly terrain, a mobile signal not being available.

Many years ago I got stuck in mud at Duncansby head near John O Groats, called someone up on Orkney on 2 metres and they got the AA out for me.

Peter