BT Reveals 1,000 of its Old UK Payphone Kiosks Up for Grabs
Telecoms giant BT has announced that, ahead of its iconic red phone box turning 100 years of age next year, around 1,000 of its 20,000 remaining kiosks (payphone boxes) are currently up for grabs across the United Kingdom (down from a historic peak of 92,000). Some 7,200 have already been adopted by communities across the country.
While the first exterior phone box, produced in concrete and known as the K1, was introduced in small numbers in 1921, the red phone box we know today was designed by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott for a competition in 1924. This design, the K2, was introduced in 1926, predominately in London. In 1936, Scott refined his design for the famous K6 introduced across the UK to mark George V’s Silver Jubilee.
However, BT has spent the past few years decommissioning many of their old payphones, most of which were no longer being used – largely due to improvements in mobile coverage and related service affordability. Some of those have been replaced by the operator’s new smart WiFi Street Hub kiosks (mostly in cities), while others have been adopted by local authorities or registered charities under the “Adopt a Kiosk” scheme (e.g. turning them into WiFi hotspots, 4G small cells, mini libraries or storage for life-saving public defibrillators – there are about 700 of the latter).
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Under the aforementioned scheme, local authorities (and parish councils or local charities) can purchase local red kiosks for a basic £1 fee. There are now roughly 20,000 remaining working payphones (aka – “Public Call Boxes” or PCB) across the UK, around 3,000 of which are in traditional red kiosks and BT states that 1,000 of those are still up for grabs by communities.
Michael Smy, Head of Street at BT, said:
“With the vast majority of people now using mobile phones, and significant improvements to mobile coverage across the UK, we’ve continued to see a big drop in the number of calls made from payphones.
That’s why we’re continuing to review our payphones estate, making sure we’re prioritising the removal of those not being used, in line with Ofcom’s latest guidance.
With the iconic red kiosk about to turn 100, it’s a great opportunity to remind communities that would still like to retain their local kiosk to take it on for just £1 through our Adopt a Kiosk scheme. We’ve already seen some great kiosk conversions across the UK that have become valuable community assets.”
BT is continuing to review its remaining estate of payphones, removing those that are no longer being used, in line with rules set out by Ofcom.
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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What if Clark Kent decided to visit the UK? Where will find a place where to change the clothes? That’s so serious.
“You pay us £1, and then BT no longer has to pay the cost of either maintaining or decommissioning the box”
Sounds like a good deal (for BT)
Shame it’s councils and charities only. I’d buy one just to say I own one, even if it was more than a quid.
At the very least they should open it to CICs
https://business.bt.com/public-sector/street-hubs/adopt-a-kiosk-scheme/
“We can’t allow private individuals to adopt kiosks unless they own the land the kiosk is on. But our supplier X2 Connect does sell them to interested parties. For further information please contact X2 Connect.” (with a button to click for more info)
They range from £1750+VAT for one in a dilapidated state, £2900+VAT for a good one, to £4500+VAT for a union jack one.
Sounds ideal for first time home owners wanting to get their feet on the ladder!
@Buggerlugz
Indeed, Lionel Jeffries/Grandpa Potts would be proud.
In the old days some telephone kiosks were situated next to post boxes, though now it’s best to contact Royal Mail about official post boxes. Obtaining both for nostalgia could be quite expensive and time consuming.
Does a telephone box pay business rates?
Yes they do. You can work the rates out on the VOA part of the gov.uk site, standard phone boxes have a value of around £200, the business rates are about a quarter of that. Advertising on the kiosks generates most of the revenue rather than calls. Freephone calls generate 70p per minute passed to the owner of the 0800 number, this charge applies to 101 and 111 too
NE555 you don’t want private individuals owning them or anyone else to offer a public telephone service, that’s why BT rarely removes any of its phone boxes that are next to competitors like New World and Infocus.
BT is a funny company, it removes phone boxes that are clearly needed and ones we really want gone, BT puts up a fight. There’s a cashless BT box that offers free calls to UK landlines and mobiles because of the loss of the card service, not a single call has been made in 3 years yet the kiosks which people use, you rip away.
The BT Street Hubs do not work for phone calls, they freeze or simply say Account not configured, its a national fault.
I’d say BT is trying manipulate usage figures so that Ofcom removes the obligations to operate them because they all need switching to Digital Voice soon.
I would feel sorry for BT and Kcom having to continue operating them but its still generating money and these are the conditions former publicly owned companies have to offer the community, its tough titties.