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Telephone booth

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"Phone Booth" redirects here. For other uses, see Phone Booth (disambiguation).
Not to be confused with Money booth or Telephone Booth (song).
Classic UK red telephone boxes

A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box[1][2] is a small structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience.

In the United States and in some parts of Canada, "telephone booth" (or "phone booth") is the commonly used term for the structure, while in the Commonwealth of Nations (particularly the United Kingdom and Australia and most of Canada), it is a "telephone box" (or "phone box").[3]

Such a booth usually has lighting, a door to provide privacy, and windows to let others know if the booth is in use. The booth may be furnished with a printed directory of local telephone numbers, and a booth in a formal setting, such as a hotel, may be furnished with paper and pen and even a seat. An outdoor booth may be made of metal and plastic to withstand the elements and heavy use, while an indoor booth (once known as a silence cabinet) may have more elaborate architecture and furnishings.[4] Most outdoor booths feature the name and logo of the telephone service provider.

History

A Hull K6 telephone box
Telephone booth in La Crescent, Minnesota, May 2012
Telephone booth with internet access in Münster, Germany. March 2014
Public Phone Booths in Kashmar, Iran

The world's first telephone box called "Fernsprechkiosk", was opened on 12 January 1881 at Potsdamer Platz, Berlin.[5] To use it, one had to buy paper tickets called Telefonbillet which allowed for a few minutes of talking time. In 1899 it was replaced by a coin-operated telephone.[citation needed]

William Gray is credited with inventing the coin payphone in the United States in 1889, and George A. Long was its developer.[6] The first telephone booth in London, England, was probably installed near the Staple Inn in High Holborn in May 1903.[citation needed]

In the UK, the creation of a national network of telephone boxes commenced in 1920 starting with the K1 which was made of concrete, however the city of Kingston upon Hull is noted for having its individual payphone service, with cream coloured phone boxes, as opposed to classic royal red in the rest of Britain.[citation needed]

Design

An example of a person using a Telstra phone box in Victoria, Australia

Starting in the 1970s pay telephones were less and less commonly placed in booths in the United States. In many cities where they were once common, telephone booths have now been almost completely replaced by non-enclosed pay phones. In the United States, this replacement was caused, at least in part, by an attempt to make the pay telephones more accessible to disabled people. However, in the United Kingdom, telephones remained in booths more often than the non-enclosed setup. Although still fairly common, the number of phone boxes has declined sharply in Britain since the late 1990s due to the boom of mobile phones.

Many locations that provide pay-phones mount the phones on kiosks rather than in booths—this relative lack of privacy and comfort discourages lengthy calls in high-demand areas such as airports.

Special equipment installed in some telephone booths allows a caller to use a computer, a portable fax machine, or a telecommunications device for the deaf.

A Telstra payphone booth in Australia that also serves as a WI-FI hotspot to access the internet.

Paying for the call

Coins

The user of the booth pays for the call by depositing coins into a slot on the telephone. With some telephones the deposit is made before making the call, and the coins are returned if the call attempt is unsuccessful (busy, no answer, etc.). With other types of telephone coins are not deposited until the call has been made and the caller hears their party answer. The deposit of coins then permits two-way conversation to proceed.

Cards

Calls may be paid for by entering a payment code on the telephone's keypad, by swipe-card ("Swipe & Call") or by using a telephone card. Some pay phones are equipped with a card reader that allows a caller to make payment with a credit card.

Collect call

A caller who possesses no means of payment may have the phone company's operator ask the call recipient if the recipient is willing to make payment for the call; this is known as "reversing the charges", "reverse charged call" or a "collect call". It is also sometimes possible to place a call to a phone booth if the intended recipient is known to be waiting at the booth, but not all phone booths allow such incoming calls. Long before "computer hacking" was a common phenomenon, creative mischief-makers devised tactics for obtaining free phone usage through a variety of techniques, including several for defeating the electro-mechanical payment mechanisms of telephone booths—early methods of phone phreaking.

Emergency calls

Some jurisdictions require phone booths to provide dial-tone first services, allowing coinless access to the emergency telephone number and the switchboard operator, and do not require any coins or credit card payments for dialing such calls (Verizon New York Inc. v. Environmental Control Board of the City of New York, New York State Appellate Division First Department December 29, 2009).

Recent developments

A vandalized KX+ phone box in London
Tart cards are often found in phone boxes in London advertising the services of call girls
A telephone booth in Brazil, popularly called orelhão ("big ear") because of its format
A joke public telephone at a V-Day anniversary celebration in Hampshire
A phone booth in North Carolina

Wireless services

The increasing use of mobile phones has led to a decreased demand for pay telephones, but the increasing use of laptops is leading to a new kind of service. In 2003, service provider Verizon announced that they would begin offering wireless computer connectivity in the vicinity of their phone booths in Manhattan. As of 2006 the Verizon wifi telephone booth service was discontinued in favor of the more expensive Verizon Wireless's EVDO system.[7]

This allows a computer user to connect with remote computer services by means of a short range device stationed within the booth. The caller pays for usage by means of a pre-arranged account code stored inside the caller's computer.[citation needed] Wireless access is motivating telephone companies to place wireless stations at locations that have traditionally hosted telephone booths, but stations are also appearing in new kinds of locations such as libraries, cafés, and trains. Phone booths have been slowly disappearing since the advent of the mobile phone in 1973.[citation needed]

Vandalism

A rise in vandalism in certain[which?] regions has prompted several companies to manufacture simpler booths with extremely strong pay-phones.

Dual currencies

Most telephone booths in Northern Ireland are able to accept two currencies. They are able to accept both pound sterling and euro, due to the proximity to the Republic of Ireland. Similarly, mainly in large cities in Great Britain, certain telephone booths accept both sterling and euro. Other services provided by these booths are internet access, SMS text messaging and ordinary phone services.

Withdrawal of services

Pay phones may still be used by mobile/cellular phone users if their phones become unusable, get stolen, or for other emergency uses. These uses may make the complete disappearance of pay phones in the near future less likely. Often, at least in emergency, a phone call can be made from a hotel or a shop, making public pay phones less needed.[citation needed]

Belgium

In Belgium, majority state-owned telco Belgacom took the last remaining phone booths out of service on 1 June 2015.[8]

Denmark

On 13 December 2017 the last three public telephone booths in Denmark had their telephones removed.[9] They were situated in the town of Aarhus.

Finland

By 2007, Finnet companies and TeliaSonera Finland had discontinued their public telephones, and the last remaining operator Elisa Oyj did that during the beginning of that year.[10]

United Kingdom

Main articles: K series telephone box and KX and ST6 series telephone boxes

The telephone company BT is steadily removing public telephone kiosks from the streets of the UK. It is permitted to remove a kiosk without consultation provided that there is another kiosk within 400 m (1,300 ft) walking distance. In other cases, it is required to comply with Ofcom rules in consultation with the local authority.[11] Statistics for BT payphones are published on the BT website.[12]

Jordan

In 2004, Jordan became the first country in the world not to have telephone booths generally available. The mobile/cellular phone penetration in that country is so high that telephone booths have hardly been used at all for years. The two private payphone service companies, namely ALO and JPP, closed down, and currently there's no payphone service to speak of.[13]

Sweden

The first telephone booth in Sweden was erected in 1890. In 1981 there were 44,000 of them,[14] but in 2013 only 1,200, with a withdrawal of the last one was in 2015.[15] A survey showed that in 2013 only 1% of the population in Sweden used one the last year.[15]

Smoking ban

Following the commencement of the smoking ban in England in 2007, it became illegal to smoke in red telephone boxes (types K2 to K8), due to these boxes being completely enclosed spaces. The smoking ban requires owners to display no smoking signs, which has resulted in BT displaying a no smoking sticker which refer to the telephone box as "premises". Despite smoking in red telephone boxes being banned, smoking in other telephone boxes remains legal as these boxes are not completely enclosed spaces.[citation needed]

Charging points

Since many telephone boxes tend to be at the roadside and already have electricity supplies, a trial is to take place in the Spanish capital, Madrid, to convert 30 former telephone boxes into charging points for electric cars.[16]

Advertising

Many telephone boxes in the United Kingdom have become locations for advertisements, bearing posters, with the development of "StreetTalk" by JCDecaux.[17] This is in addition to the ST6 public telephone introduced in 2007 which is designed to feature a phone on one side and a JCDecaux-owned advertising space on the otherside. The advertising pays for the running of the phone.

In 2018, the UK Local Government Association drew attention to "Trojan" telephone boxes. These are telephone boxes whose main purpose is advertising. A loophole in planning law allows these to be erected without planning permission and the LGA is seeking to close this loophole.[18]

  • In comic books published by DC Comics, the telephone booth is occasionally the place where reporter Clark Kent discards his street clothing and transforms into the costumed superhero Superman. Some of the films and television series featuring the character have also used, referenced, or spoofed this plot device.[19]
  • The BBC science-fiction television series Doctor Who features the TARDIS, a time machine disguised as a Mackenzie Trench-style police box (a type of phone booth).

See also

References

  1. ^ "Phone Boxes". legendarydartmoor.co.uk. 21 March 2016.
  2. ^ Discussion Note on Phone Boxes, Kiosks and ATM machines at Urban Design London
  3. ^ Sag, Ivan; Baldwin, Timothy; Bond, Francis; Copestake, Ann; Flickinger, Dan. "Multiword Expressions: A Pain in the Neck for NLP" (PDF). Stanford University. p. 2. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Public Telephones". Melchior Telematics. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  5. ^ "Das war 1881 - Ereignisse 1881" (in German). was-war-wann.de.
  6. ^ "Site of World's First Pay Phone". ctmuseumquest.com. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
  7. ^ Jen Chung (2 May 2005). "Goodbye Free Verizon WiFi". Gothamist LLC. Archived from the original on 27 May 2007. Retrieved 4 December 2007. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Belgacom hangs up on Belgium's last phone booths, eurocomms.com; accessed 11 October 2017.
  9. ^ David Rue Honoré (20 December 2017). "Danmarks sidste mønttelefon er taget ned" (in Danish). Berlingske Tidende. Retrieved 20 December 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  10. ^ "Elisa luopuu yleisöpuhelinliiketoiminnasta syksyllä 2007" (in Finnish). Elisa Oyj. 15 November 2006. Retrieved 4 December 2007.
  11. ^ http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/consultations/uso/statement/removals.pdf
  12. ^ "What's the service level for public payphones? - BT Business". btbusiness.custhelp.com.
  13. ^ "Payphones suffer from cellphone growth 2004". CellularOnline. 22 March 2004.
  14. ^ Sällsynt telefonkiosk överlever (Swedish)
  15. ^ a b Telefonkiosken tackar för sig Archived 4 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  16. ^ Tremlett, Giles (8 September 2009). "Madrid reverses the chargers with electric car plan". The Guardian.
  17. ^ "StreetTalk". JCDecaux. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  18. ^ "LGA: call for crackdown on 'trojan' telephone boxes amid 900 per cent rise in some areas". Local Government Association. Local Government Association. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  19. ^ Younis, Steve. "Superman and the Phone Booth". SupermanHomepage.com. Retrieved 11 July 2013.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Telephone booth.
  • PayPhoneBox Index of payphone numbers and photographs of payphones in unusual or famous places around the world.
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