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Summary

There are many people who rely on the UK’s 67,000 public call boxes (known as ‘call boxes’ or ‘phone boxes’).

For some people, who don’t have any kind of phone of their own, phone boxes are a lifeline. For others, they’re useful if they find that their mobile phone isn’t working. Most phone boxes – around 64,500 – are owned by BT.

Our research shows that over 33% of adults use phone boxes from time to time, while 7% use them regularly. They’re most popular with:

• young people;
• people on low incomes;
• people with mobiles but no home phone; and
• people who have no phone at all.

They’re especially important in areas where mobiles don’t work, and in any community where there are disadvantaged people.

Even so, people aren’t using phone boxes like they used to. The money that BT received from phone boxes went down by nearly half between 2000 and 2006. In fact, BT say that six out of 10 of their phone boxes are losing them money. This is why they’ve launched a programme to reduce the number of phone boxes.

However, unlike a normal business, BT can’t just take away services for reasons linked to money. They have a duty, known as the Universal Service Obligation (USO), to provide a reasonable number of working phone boxes where they’re most needed.

In 2005, we carried out a study of phone boxes. We wanted to be able to strike the right balance between the number of call boxes that the public actually needs, and BT’s wish to remove phone boxes that lose them money. This booklet explains the rules that BT must now follow if they want to remove the only phone box in a local area, and the important role that local authorities play in that process. (In the Hull area, these same rules apply to Kingston Communications, which owns the phone boxes there.)

This booklet gives you a simple summary of those rules. If you need to know the fuller details, or want to ask for a new box in your area, please turn to the end of this booklet.

The full document is available below

• Removing Public Call Boxes: a guide to the rules [pdf]
  Full Print Version

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