Telephone boxes, like protected species, are saved from extinction in Great Britain thanks to the intervention of Ofcom, the country’s telecommunications regulator. To prevent their removal by British Telecom, new regulations have come into effect starting from 8 June 2022. According to Ofcom, the public telephone booths they are still useful in rural areas where mobile network coverage is inadequate. But there are also other reasons why it is worth preserving its existence.
The red cabins, a cult object in the UK, they will in fact be fully safeguarded likewise in areas where there is a high rate of accidents and suicides. Or when there is a systematic use of them. That is, if frequent phone calls occur from the single booth (at least 52 calls in the last twelve months, according to the criteria established by Ofcom).
London: goodbye red phone booth, the Wi-Fi columns arrive
by our correspondent ENRICO FRANCESCHINI
Why eliminate a technological means that, wrongly, is considered too prematurely obsolete, when it is still capable of fulfilling a function for many citizens and many local communities? It is true that phone calls from public booths dropped dramatically over time, going from 800 million minutes in 2002 to 4 million in the period 2021-22. However, Ofcom officials point out that thousands of calls to the emergency services have been sent from those same locations. For example, towards numbers like those of Childline e Samaritans (25 thousand and 20 thousand phone calls made in 2020 alone) which provide assistance to young people in the event of abuse, bullying and mental suffering, or emotional support to those who live in a situation of crisis, depression and are at risk of suicide.
Even if we are in the age of smartphones and mobile communication, the red cabins of fixed telephony therefore still represent a point of reference for people in difficulty. And, as Ofcom manager Selina Chadha points out, they can be “a lifeline when there are no other options available”.
What is certain is that it will not be possible to avoid it dismantling of all red cabins. But at least 1,400 will be stolen from the indiscriminate demolition plan put in place by British Telecom. Much less, however, than the 5 thousand that initially it was expected to be able to keep alive.
In recent years, citizens and local institutions have intervened to help the public cabins. British Telecom itself launched the “Adopt a Kiosk” initiative which was a great success: more than 6 thousand disused red cabins were adopted, saved from destruction, and creatively transformed into libraries, public access points to defibrillators. Or, even, bought for the symbolic sum of one pound, they have become, in the city of Cheltenham, small art galleries, where the works of local artists are exhibited.