Preston Joins Other UK Councils in Rejecting BT’s Gigabit WiFi Street Hubs
Telecoms and broadband giant BT has suffered another setback in its 10-year project, which aimed to convert a further 2,000 of their legacy payphones and kiosks – across more than 200 UK towns and cities – into smart Street Hubs (here). Preston Council rejected a couple of proposed deployments over concerns about rising “street clutter“.
Regular readers will know that BT’s Street Hub 2 units have suffered somewhat of a popularity dip, with various local authorities raising objections to related deployments in 2025 (here). The smart kiosks typically feature “up to” 1Gbps capable public WiFi (“within a 150-metre radius“), free UK calling, USB device charging, small cells to boost localised 4G and 5G mobile signals, local information / adverts via a large HD touchscreen display and environmental sensors etc.
Most of the rejections tend to highlight issues with the kiosk’s siting, design, scale (they’re roughly 3 metres tall, 1.25m wide and 35cm deep) and illumination. In the case of Preston Council, a spokesperson for the local authority said (Hello Rayo) that BT’s hubs would have had a “significant unacceptable adverse impact” on the character of the street by “increasing street clutter” and reducing the width of the footpath (this in areas where the council has been trying to reduce clutter).
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However, BT has separately placed applications for three other Street Hubs in Preston, which are still awaiting an outcome. The capabilities of such hubs do, in fairness, come with a lot of positives, but clearly it’s proving to be a tough sell for some areas.
A BT Group Spokesperson previously told ISPreview:
“Street Hubs are digital units which support our Universal Service Obligation to provide a public call service in the UK. We work with council departments, community members, and BID (Business Improvement District) teams to refine our location selection process.
As well as offering connectivity to make calls and utilise free public Wi-Fi, Street Hubs also offer USBs for rapid device charging, touch-screen tablets displaying real-time public information and a dedicated 999 calling button.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Excellent! I don’t understand why they should be able to place free advertising boards on the pretence of it being ‘a wifi hub’.
Exactly and we still don’t know how damaging Wifi transmission effect the human body yet.
WiFi has been around for quite some time. I think we’d have noticed by now.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/wireless-networks-wi-fi-radio-waves-and-health/wi-fi-radio-waves-and-health
Honestly.
Potentially it makes people write ‘effect’ instead of ‘affect’.
Besides that no practical effect, energy level so low it continues to pale in comparison to the thermonuclear reactor in the sky blasting us with UV in the THz to PHz range at 1 kW/m2. Tad higher than teens mW our WiFi uses.
@BB1984
You might not, but the rest of us do.
Plymouth rejected them, I believe, for the same “clutter” reasons, after signing an exclusive deal for video advertising boards of a similar size with a different company.
I’ll leave you to figure out which would be more useful: ‘the ability to make calls and utilise free public Wi-Fi.. USBs for rapid device charging, touch-screen tablets displaying real-time public information and a dedicated 999 calling button’, or look at some adverts.
I’m glad to hear more and more cities are refusing to allow this form of intrusive advertising. They should try to do the same functionality without that large screen and I don’t think they’d have any issues getting the planning permissions.
I hope BT will appeal this also there has been positive outcomes with approvals in Stockport ect so the news site should concentrate on the positive approvals for BT Street Hubs.
Nah, I’m from Stockport and I would reject these hubs. Most people have 4G capability on there phones. There not needed in towns.
I guess SMBC is gaining something from having these installed?
Maybe if locall places were advertised on them, but there is a giant screen on the end of the merseyway mall section with local adverts on.
They will ruin the traditional look of Stockport Old Town if put in that area.
i also suspect they will get grubby/damaged etc over time like the ones in Manchester.
Good, using as much electricity as three houses (https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/09/electronic-advertising-boards-manchester-energy-use-consumption) to display a large advert is not a good use of resources, even if there’s small benefit of free phone calls (with no privacy) and Wi-Fi.
These units are clearly advertising totems with something bolted on the side to pretend they’re the same as the phone box they replace, and should have to go through a full planning process.
Energy is free, look at ‘Zero-point’ Energy. It’s the oil tycoons that want to keep charging us more money in a world they want to control. Energy usage and sustainability is part of their tactic strategy to keep us all fooled.
Sorry, got as far as that there’s no known way or seriously theorised mechanism to harness that energy to do work and stopped there.
I don’t understand the overwhelming disagreement with ads.
Phone booths (at least newer models)
Had advertising and even some fully covered by a sticker over the window.
These street hubs could play a life-saving role in an emergency.
Not everyone has mobile phones.
Homeless are a key example.
If they aren’t allowing street hubs will they install another emergency Comms system
Fitted 3 of these in Preston so they haven’t rejected all of them..
Are you going to fit them in North Wales we are due to have them soon
So a useful BT ‘Street Hub’ is Clutter but CityFibre cabs every couple of 200MTR or so isn’t. Haven’t the councils got their priorities wrong?
First the council shut public toilets, then they remove phone boxes. With nowhere for people to go to the loo, they’ll need to stay at home and use the internet to do their business and shopping. They’ll need faster broadband connections to do that. With that £3 rise per month in April being paid directly back to the councillors for promoting this home staying move…….
Oh dear, a conspiracy theory too far?
@Just a thought: You think that any business with a responsibility to make a profit will voluntarily give £3.00 a month to councillors, in flagrant breach of bribery laws, for some completely un-measurable statistic of people staying at home and doing online shopping because there’s no public loos? Really? And what does that have to do with the removal of phone boxes (which, let’s face it, most need removing anyway due to their age and condition)? I’m not against these Street Hubs, in the right places, as the advertising helps pay for the upkeep. But I do think that in certain places, BT needs to develop a slim-line totem, with the same features, but without the screen (or maybe a small ‘wrap-around’ screen, which can be installed to support the universal service obligation. After all, if they’re a direct replacement for a phone box, they’re less obtrusive in terms of size – I suspect the bigger issue is the replacement of paper adverts / stickers etc., with a moving, lit, screen.
Walked past a few of these in Birmingham this weekend, one fairly notable thing, they were all rather noisy with fans running full chat, okay it was a hot 28-30*c day so maybe they adjust speeds with temperatures.
Noted the 999 button and a keypad on the side, with a smaller screen which was smashed up. I think if only one side was a screen and the other side had a defibrillator, then these could be justified as being a good safety feature, but it would have to be more vandal resistant.
I didn’t try and connect to any of them as I had adequate 4G, does free wifi mean free though or free when you spend 10 minutes signing up to just get a slow speed non-premium service?
A defibrillator would be a great idea in the BT street hubs, need a camera pointing at it though! Even free WiFi could be a lifesaver on occasions. 🙂
@Dave M, The last time this was mentioned on the site, my comment suggested there could be a vandal problem with these, some disagreed with me on that occasion. Your experience on viewing the broken screen confirms my orginal thoughts.
3 metres is a bit on the tall side. Shrink them down a little maybe?
Also, I hate these digital advertising boards at the roadside as they’re often way too bright for the area, too.
Noone is going to faff around connecting to free WiFi with the log in screens and everything just as they’re passing. Just as noone is going to stand in the street for half an hour charging their phone. It’s just marketing bs, why not be honest, they want these bright advertising screens with their loud fans.
Last I saw them in Manchester, they had become grubby and knackered in places. maybe vandalism with them too. iirc one or 2 had screen issues.