Ofcom, the U.K.'s phone regulator, will keep
thousands of the nation's famous red public phone booths in service, despite a
sharp drop in calls from the boxes.
The U.K. currently has around 21,000 public call
boxes that are still vital in case of emergencies and in areas where cellphone
users can't get a reliable signal.
Under the regulator's new criteria, a call box will
need to be used at least 52 times over a 12-month period to stay in service. Anyway,
if a kiosk is in an area identified as an accident or suicide hotspot, it can't
be removed.
"Some of the call boxes we plan to protect are
used to make relatively low numbers of calls," said Selina Chadha, Ofcom's
director of connectivity. "But if one of those calls is from a distressed
child, an accident victim or someone contemplating suicide, that public phone
line can be a lifeline at a time of great need."
Ofcom will take a phone booth out of operation only
if its service area is covered by the U.K.'s four mobile networks.
Local
communities can adopt a red phone kiosk under a plan that lets
governments or organizations buy the call box for just £1. According to Ofcom,
"more than 6,000 kiosks have been converted to a range of different uses,
such as community libraries, or to house life-saving public
defibrillators."
Red call boxes that meet the new protection
criteria will have to update its analog telephone network. With the old phone
system set to be turned off by the end of 2025, red call boxes that survive the
cut will have to be upgraded to Internet Protocol standards.
A red phone box in Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, was converted into a village library.
Photo Credit:Daniel R Jones/Getty Images
From NPR (edited)
