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British telephone booths: Around 5,000 out of 21,000 will continue to be operated
Photo: Victoria Jones / dpa
For decades they represented Great Britain like the double-decker buses in London; in the age of smartphones, the days of thousands of bright red telephone booths seemed numbered.
However, the responsible regulatory authority Ofcom is now ensuring that at least some of the payphones remain in operation.
On Tuesday, it published new guidelines aimed at maintaining around 5,000 telephone booths in the UK.
Telephone booths should therefore remain in place if their location is not covered by the four UK cell phone networks, if at least 53 calls have been made from them in the past twelve months or if exceptional circumstances justify their retention.
They should also continue to exist in places where accidents often occur - or suicide attempts.
"Some of the phone booths are only used for a few calls," said Ofcom representative Selina Chadha.
But they could help save lives if, for example, a child in need is using them, or an accident victim or someone contemplating suicide.
Selina Chadha also announced new phone booths with free WiFi and charging stations.
Most people can be reached on the move
According to the authority, 96 percent of Britons now have their own cell phone.
The telephone booth operator BT is therefore currently examining which of the around 21,000 red coin operated telephones are really still needed.
On the Ofcom website it says that within twelve months to May 2020 around five million calls were made from telephone booths.
According to the data, 150,000 calls were emergency calls, and 25,000 were made to a helpline for children.
Some of the booths that are about to go out could soon have a different career ahead of them: In the past few years, more than 6,000 telephone booths have been converted into public bookcases or ATMs.
Some telephone booths are also used to store defibrillators.
Are you thinking about killing yourself? Talk to other people about it. Here you will find - also anonymous - offers of help in supposedly hopeless situations. By phone, chat, e-mail or in a personal conversation.
mbö / dpa / AFP