
Councils given more time to reclaim a British insititution...
By Tim Ferguson
Published: 22 September 2008 13:00 BST
BT has given local authorities more time to step in to save thousands of iconic red phone boxes that the telco is looking to axe.
Councils now have until 1 November to inform BT whether they want to retain and contribute to the upkeep of phone boxes across the country.
Back in the summer, BT decided to close a significant proportion of its public telephone boxes due to a fall in usage that has led to 60 per cent of the boxes becoming unprofitable.
BT is offering an "adopt a kiosk" scheme whereby councils can pay a nominal fee of £1 to retain those traditional red phone boxes which have been earmarked for removal, minus the telephone.
Alternatively, local authorities can pay £500 per year to BT to maintain phone boxes that are at risk.
A BT spokesman told silicon.com: "Take up's been pretty good and the responses we've had from local authorities is 'can we have a bit more time to look at this?' so it just seemed a reasonable thing to do."
According to BT, there are around 12,000 red phone boxes in the UK, of which 4,500 are under threat of closure.
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