Regulator Ofcom has brought in new rules to protect rural phone boxes from being axed. The telecoms regulator says it will stop BT (British Telecom) from closing phone boxes in areas with poor mobile phone signals if they are needed by the local community.
The BBC reports there are around 1,400 phone boxes in areas that do not have good mobile phone coverage. A drop from the 5,000 it thought would be protected under the new rules.
Ofcom is also due to protect phone boxes in areas with high frequencies of accidents or suicides, or where services like Childline are regularly used. It is unclear how many phone boxes this would save.
But the BBC says 25,000 calls were made to Childline in the year ending May 2020, while 20,000 were made to Samaritans. During the same time, there were 150,000 calls to the emergency services made from phone boxes.
The new rules would see phone boxes saved if they are used more than 52 times over the course of a year, provide vital services such as calls to Childline or Samaritans, located in an area not covered by all four mobile networks or located in an area with many accidents or suicides. BT has been decommissioning phone boxes for a number of years.
Ofcom says around 6,000 former phone boxes have been sold or adapted in other ways. These include becoming local libraries or defibrillators.
Selina Chadha, Ofcom's director of connectivity, said phone boxes "can still serve as a vital lifeline - perhaps to call a helpline or the emergency services - when no other options are available. Our new rules will ensure that many thousands of phone boxes will be protected for as long as they are needed."
