There are many people who rely on the UK’s 67,000 public call boxes (known as ‘call boxes’ or ‘phone boxes’).

For some people, who don’t have any kind of phone of their own, phone boxes are a lifeline.  For others, they’re useful if they find that their mobile phone isn’t working.  Most phone boxes - around 64,500 - are owned by BT.

They’re especially important in areas where mobiles don’t work, and in any community where there are disadvantaged people.  However, people are not using phone boxes as often as they used to.  The money that BT received from phone boxes went down by nearly half between 2000 and 2006, and BT say that six out of 10 of their phone boxes are losing them money - and so they have launched a programme to reduce the number of public call boxes around the country.

The Ofcom Removing Callboxes booklet explains the rules that BT must now follow if they want to remove the only phone box in a local area, and the important role that local authorities play in that process.

The Final Decision Table is the list of public call boxes in the South Hams area that have been proposed for removal.

As required, this list has been sent to Telecoms, along with the following two documents:
Final Notification under section 49(4) of the Communications Act 2003.
Final Notification letter to Telecoms re Consultation on the Removal of Public Call Boxes.