Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Phones boxes - what are they for???
There's LOADS of phone boxes in Harringay, they seem to be hardly used, full of rubbish & often vandalised to the point where they don't work anyway. They do however seem to be regularly serviced with new corporate advertising on the outside & more local business cards on the inside.
Are these phone boxes kept purely to provide BT with an income from advertising? How frequently do BT service the phones? Would it be wrong to request their removal as part of a community tidy up? Does anyone have any figures about how frequently they're used to actually make phone calls?
Tags for Forum Posts: phone cabinets, phone kiosk removal, phone kiosk uses
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by anne-marie on
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I suspect that they may be being used as wifi hotspots as part of a wireless borough network. Many phone boxes are these days.
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Not everyone has a home or mobile phone, see this Ofcom notice to determine the required removal procedure: http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/uso/stateme...
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Permalink Reply by David Barry on
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Phone boxes continue to be provided by BT only because its part of their public service obligation enforced by OFCOM. In general, whether they are actually of any use, in most cases, is questionable. They put one on Archway bridge in case anyone had the urge to ring the Samaritans.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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They don't require planning permission to display advertising because of some very old, very out of date telecommunications laws. They must earn the owners of the kiosks a fortune.
I think FPRs idea of incorporating a recharging dock is brilliant. Wish I'd thought of that.
I think the old red, K model phone boxes are things of beauty and many of the early models are actually listed by Engish Heritage. The problem with them if that they were expensive to produce and maintain and didn't allow access to people using wheelchairs so they were replaced with the ones you see now. The early K model boxes change hands for quite a bit of money now.
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It's interesting to read the Ofcom rules at the link that Inkjetpack provided.
Apparently the removal procedure only applies if a phone box is the only one in the area. If there are two phone boxes within 400m walk from each other BT can take one of them away without going through the procedure - which seems fair enough, I suppose.
That explains this notice on a very forlorn BT box in Lansdowne Road N17, where there is another one not far away. Note the dangling wires - I don't think it has been in use for a while...
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