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General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
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21st Dec 2019, 12:49 am | #21 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
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21st Dec 2019, 1:00 am | #22 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Posts: 5,554
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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. |
21st Dec 2019, 12:55 pm | #23 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Tintinara, South Australia, Australia
Posts: 2,340
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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BT's own reports, the sale of phone cards became uneconomic as mobile phones became popular and they (the cards) were withdrawn in 2002. |
21st Dec 2019, 2:21 pm | #24 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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/ |
21st Dec 2019, 2:33 pm | #25 |
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
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21st Dec 2019, 4:43 pm | #26 |
Dekatron
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Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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/ |
21st Dec 2019, 6:40 pm | #27 |
Heptode
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 583
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
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21st Dec 2019, 10:00 pm | #28 |
Heptode
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Scratby, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 651
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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 |
21st Dec 2019, 11:37 pm | #29 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Sep 2017
Location: Stockport, Cheshire, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
Quote:
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25th Dec 2019, 4:06 am | #30 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
Quote:
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.
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25th Dec 2019, 6:09 am | #31 | |
Nonode
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Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
Quote:
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.
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Oh I've had that for years dear!! |
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25th Dec 2019, 2:14 pm | #32 |
Dekatron
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Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
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25th Dec 2019, 11:56 pm | #33 |
Dekatron
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Location: Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
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26th Dec 2019, 9:34 pm | #34 |
Nonode
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Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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
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Oh I've had that for years dear!! |
26th Dec 2019, 10:29 pm | #35 | |
Heptode
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Durham, County Durham, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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.
Quote:
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 |
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26th Dec 2019, 11:04 pm | #36 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Fakenham, Norfolk, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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
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27th Dec 2019, 12:28 am | #37 | |
Dekatron
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Location: Greater Manchester, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
Quote:
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.
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27th Dec 2019, 12:54 am | #38 |
Heptode
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Location: Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
This is why God gave us shortwave radio...
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28th Dec 2019, 4:09 am | #39 | |
Dekatron
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
Quote:
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.
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28th Dec 2019, 8:14 am | #40 |
Dekatron
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Location: Charmouth, Dorset, UK.
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Re: The end of BT Phone Booths in Wiltshire?
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 |