Joy of Gadgets

Image via Wikipedia

When I went to a trade show in March, I was at the San Jose Civic Auditorium attending a party. I came across this phone booth (pictured left) with something important missing–a phone!

Why is this useful? If you’ve ever attended a concert at the San Jose Civic, you know it’s loud! If you want to make a phone call, you might use your mobile phone, but you need something like a phone booth to dull the noise.

In a place like London, phone booths have a very distinctive look. However, like everywhere else, they are going away thanks to the proliferation of mobile phones. Those phone booths that still exist probably aren’t getting used all that much. However, it’s nice to have just a booth for privacy or asthetic reasons. You may even want a completely functional phone booth “just in case.”

British Telecom is allowing local councils the ability to pay an annual maintenance fee of £500 (or about US $888) for the privilege of having a fully functional telephone booth, roughly half if they only want the structure. Of course, some phone booths are considered landmarks and can’t be removed without approval from the local authorities.

I think it’s a good idea to keep a couple of phone booths around. Not everyone has mobile phones and they don’t always work as you expect. It’s a public safety thing and would be rounding error in a city budget.

Cellular News via MobHappy

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