BT (British Telecom)

[Macdemon]

Is anybody else disgusted with the condition of their telephone kiosks nowadays??

 

They ALL need a bl00dy good clean, get rid of the old flyposted material, one or 2 around the city need new handsets as they have been 'torn off' and a high number smell like a tramps underwear!!!!!       

 

C'mon BT, please smarten up your phoneboxes, it doesn't endear me to ever becoming a BT customer!!!   If you don't look after your public phones, maybe you won't look after me as a customer..   

 

Rant over.  :think:

Edited 8 October, 2016 by Macdemon

[mannyo]

Not seen a working phone box for sometime, but thats because down here they have all but gone. None in town, none where my mum lives. The ones that remain have been converted into libraries or removed all together.

[punyXpress]

They're probably too busy counting all the cash they make in transmitting spam calls to us ?

[FUBAR]

 a high number smell like a tramps underwear!!!!!       

 

 

I will have to take your word for it on that one  

[gadgetman]

Likewise don't recall seeing any phone boxes locally anymore.

They've pretty much all been removed round here. Not sure there's even any in town anymore. Only direct phones in some shops for calling a local taxi.

With mobiles so cheap, and calls cheaper on most PAYG than BT phone boxes I can't see them keeping the phone boxes going

[malcster]

Near we have 2 one in our village one in the next

Ours is a defibrillator and the next one is a library

[Sad555]

It's been many year now since kiosks were viable with the onset of mobiles . BT would have got rid of them all years ago if they were allowed to, an absolute loss maker,with getting vandalised, cash boxes being jacked out etc,etc for the amount of revenue they achieved .if it was viable don't you think Virgin and the rest would have got in on it ?

[@Lee]

It's been many year now since kiosks were viable with the onset of mobiles . BT would have got rid of them all years ago if they were allowed to, an absolute loss maker,with getting vandalised, cash boxes being jacked out etc,etc for the amount of revenue they achieved .if it was viable don't you think Virgin and the rest would have got in on it ?

If only Virgin customers knew how ****ty and neglected their own cabs were

[VWD]

It's been many year now since kiosks were viable with the onset of mobiles . BT would have got rid of them all years ago if they were allowed to, an absolute loss maker,with getting vandalised, cash boxes being jacked out etc,etc for the amount of revenue they achieved .if it was viable don't you think Virgin and the rest would have got in on it ?

Something a lot of the public don't know is that Phone boxes have been the subject of vandalism for a lot of years.  Dad was a postman ,responsible for routine changing of cash boxes in our village and he seldom had a box with an overflow problem.

As an engineer, who got the job when work was quiet ,I found the boxes in villages were well kept- some folk regarded the boxes as their own personal phones ( ref a box on the Isle of Soay, that only was used on a weekly test), but the town ones especially on council estates were regularly vandalised .

Something a few of the older telecomms blokes will remember is the orderly line of coins stacked neatly on top of the coin box. First step if box was working was to dial operator, get a ticket number, record it and a record of the cash put in the box. If the box was out of order, fix it and then do likewise, as this was an internal check on employee honesty by Investigation branch.

A lot of older boxes were what was called "Coronation" boxes, placed in obscure places to honour something like the Queen's Coronation, and very difficult to remove even if they were loss making. Again ,ref one somewhere near Loch Arkaig, which saw more stags than users.

[Sad555]

Yes all very true,BT stopped collecting the money many years ago,putting it out to contract,more cost and reducing the number of kiosk engineers so they ended up traveling hundreds of miles a day putting up the cost even more.happy days.

[Aspman]

We'll they have closed lots of public lavvies.

[punyXpress]

Likewise don't recall seeing any phone boxes locally anymore.

They've pretty much all been removed round here. Not sure there's even any in town anymore. Only direct phones in some shops for calling a local taxi.

With mobiles so cheap, and calls cheaper on most PAYG than BT phone boxes I can't see them keeping the phone boxes going

Try using a mobile in large areas round here and you get the time-honoured remark: " You're having a giraffe "

[KenONeill]

What's a "phone box"? It's years since I last saw one other than maybe one that's been converted into an information terminal!

[Macdemon]

I remember phone boxes having telephone books to find peoples numbers.    :sun:

[gadgetman]

I remember phone boxes having telephone books to find peoples numbers. :sun:

Yup. Thanks for making me feel old

They've been sending phone books & yellow pages locally and they've gone from being 1-2" thick to being smaller than a Thompson directory!

[Macdemon]

Here too haha, and yet I remember the 2 inch thick books.

 

I also remember THESE..................  

 

And if you were posh, you had one of THESE..............................

 

Edited 10 October, 2016 by Macdemon

[gadgetman]

I had 2 of the top ones in the garage from when my parents downsized.

Not sure what happened to them. Probably still in there somewhere.

[@Lee]

I had 2 of the top ones in the garage from when my parents downsized.

Not sure what happened to them. Probably still in there somewhere.

 

My GPO 746 still works

 

[VWD]

LEE- I still remember Phone Boxes with 232 + bell set, and battery boxes with Le Clanchie cells fitted under the button A/B box( on manual/non CB exchanges). In those days, we never paid for calls. We either knew the girls in the exchange, or used our J keys to fool the box into giving us a free call. Simple- box front off, operate arm to imitate 4p into arm weight to remove S/C on dial contacts. Dial, then when party answers, press button A to simulate coins passing into box. But this was in the days when Engineer/operator relationships were torrid affairs. At Xmas parties, a married bloke never ( unless willingly) was caught in a corner by operators.

[softscoop]

 

My GPO 746 still works

 

 

Can you still dial out using those Lee? I assume that they're pulse dialling only.

[rum4mo]

Down the road from me a very old couple have a red box in their garden, I would have thought that they were past making that sort of statement, their next door neighbours have the rusting remains of a VW microbus - that has been there for over 20 years and has recently had a notice stuck on it saying "no parts to be removed!" - I think that nature is beating them to it!

 

I agree with the statement making it clear that not every where has a mobile phone signal, so maybe there is a need for someone to provide working "communicators" in these known black spots?

[@Lee]

Can you still dial out using those Lee? I assume that they're pulse dialling only.

Yes can still dial out and make calls with it. No point trying to call any business where you have to press one etc though lol

[KenONeill]

Yes can still dial out and make calls with it. No point trying to call any business where you have to press one etc though lol

IME if you just sit there like a stookie most of those systems give up and connect you to a real person.

[VWD]

Yes can still dial out and make calls with it. No point trying to call any business where you have to press one etc though lol

Any properly set up voicemail /call director system should have a provision for no key pressed ( although LD phones are the exception ), to divert to an operatror. Indeed ,at one time, it was quicker on the BT system to let the no key pressed divert take you to an operator. These days on this sort of system ,I find a loud well blown raspberry gets you past all but the worst set up systems to a human being.

[Sad555]

Those phones are a bit too modern

Edited 13 February, 2017 by Sad555