BT is free to cut boxes until they reach the last box

Tag : Internet Phone Call
As a result, the phone box is facing a battle for its long-termsurvival. BT wants other firms to help pay towards the cost ofmaintaining the 6,000 booths in Scotland. The industry regulator,Ofcom, is looking again at the cost of the system versus itsusefulness.

Resistance to any cutbacks will be fierce. The phone box is deeprooted both in our culture and the memories of anyone in theirmid-30s onwards. Phone boxes have proved irresistible to thrillerdirectors, prostitutes and the weak-bladdered.

But in a society where almost everyone carries a mobile, phone boxuse has slumped, perhaps not helped by a minimum charge of 40p.

Booths used just three times in the past year include Rullion Roadin Penicuik, Midlothian, just 10 miles from Edinburgh city centre,and one in Kincardine, Clackmannanshire, 13 miles from Stirling.Payphones in Morham, East Lothian, Crathie, Aberdeenshire, and twoin Auchterarder, Perthshire, were also used on average just onceevery four months.

BT says it has a further 13 payphones in Scotland from which onlyfour calls are made a year, 10 from which five calls are made andanother 10 from which just six calls are made.

In an effort to keep up with the times, BT has so far added e-mailand internet facilities to 37 phone boxes and has made about adozen into combined payphones and cash machines.

A BT Scotland spokesman said: "BT is very conscious of its socialobligations and has pledged its commitment to retain payphonesparticularly in remote and rural communities and for people whodepend on the service. For example, no payphones have been removedfrom the Scottish islands under our rationalisation programme whichbegan five years ago.

"More than 60% of our payphones are loss-making but, despite thecommercial pressures, we pride ourselves on providing a servicethat offers real value for money."

But top BT executives have hinted they need help maintainingunprofitable public services which are reckoned to cost the company£80m a year.

Earlier this month, BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen said: "Theregulator should think about regulating on service rather thantechnology." The comments were seen as indicating that Verwaayenwants other communications companies - including, for example,Vodafone and Cable & Wireless - to help out.

Last night, regulator Ofcom hinted it might agree to reduce theburden on BT. A spokesman said: "BT is required to maintain aservice. We reviewed the overall need for a network of phone boxeslast year and this year we shall be carrying out a furthercost-benefit analysis."

David Hamilton, the MP for Midlothian, said: "While the officialfigures say that box only had three calls last year, they may havebeen very important calls. Not everyone has a mobile and I thinkthere is an argument for some kind of support for BT to keep theseservices going. Penicuik is the most prosperous part of Midlothian,and many of the population have mobiles. But there are areas ofdeprivation where access to a phone is necessary."

Brian Baglow, chief executive of technology and communicationsmarketing firm Indoctrimat, said: "I think there will be a strongargument for some kind of financial support for the services or forother companies to become involved. But I simply can't see thegovernment allowing a large-scale shutdown of phone boxes."

He added: "If your [mobile phone] battery is flat or you've run outof credit you are absolutely stuffed unless you can get to apayphone. Reception can be patchy and not all networks work welleverywhere. So there will be pressure to retain the network."

But in the centre of Glasgow it was tough to find anyone who hadrecently used a phone box. Chef Neil Monaghan, 24, said: "I triedto use the public phone box outside my house two days ago, but itdidn't work."

He added: "I think the basic charge of 40p is shocking."

Robert Stewart, 35, a store manager, said: "It must be about sevenyears since I last used a phone box. You wouldn't want to use theones in Glasgow anyway. People do things in them that theyshouldn't. They're pretty smelly."

Under regulations governing the removal of phone boxes, BT is freeto cut boxes until they reach the last box in an area, defined as a400-metre radius of the kiosk. Once they reach the very last box,they must allow a consultation period of 90 days and localauthorities may veto the closure.

Loca l hero wins the numbers game
WH ILE underemployed phone boxes reflect on their glory days,Scotland's most phoned-into call box is enjoying cult status 24years after being featured on the big screen.

Ferness 261 is the phone box in the Aberdeenshire coastal villageof Pennan featured in the 1983 film Local Hero. BT confirmed it isthe most-called box in Scotland but declined to give the precisenumber.

In the film, a US oil executive played by Peter Riegert used thepayphone, the village's only method of communication, to call hiscorporation and receive instructions on the purchase of theHighland village for an oil refinery. Riegert found himself beingasked by his boss, played by Burt Lancaster, if he could see theNorthern Lights.

In addition, the film closes with a shot of the Ferness phone boothas the telephone rings endlessly to the music of Mark Knopfler's'Going Home'.

The box is a listed building protected by a special paint developedfor North Sea oil rigs, but it is not the box used in the actualfilm. When the movie was being shot, a dummy box was placed closerto the village pier.

Tourists come to the box and call home, asking their friends tocall them on the phone box number.