BT doubles phone box cost

The cost of quick calls from phone boxes will double from October

Consumer champions have called for an investigation into the future of phone boxes, after BT doubled minimum call charges and said that takings at some booths were insufficient to cover cleaning costs.

The Consumers' Association has demanded an inquiry by telecoms regulator Oftel into the effects of new a tariff structure, which will from 3 October raise to 20p the minimum charge for a call from a BT payphone.

BT said the charge revisions, which will for the first time see phone box users pay for directory inquiry calls, have been prompted by a decline in payphone users, who are switching to mobile phones.

But the Consumers' Association said: "In essence BT are arguing that [competition from mobiles] makes phone boxes uneconomic to run unless they put up charges. We want Oftel to investigate this claim."

"Protect access"

"If it is necessary to put up charges, Oftel needs to consider how many people will be adversely affected and what measures need to be put in place to ensure they retain access to a telephone," an association spokesman said.

The new cost of keeping in touch

Minimum charge: 20p.

Charge per minute: 11p.

Calls to directory inquiries charged at same rate as national calls.

Charges apply from 3 October.

BT, which is obliged by licence clauses to provide universal coverage, said on Friday that the rise was needed "to safeguard the future of the payphone service".

Use of phone boxes has declined by 12% in 2000 in the face of competition from mobile phones, and now accounts for just 6% of calls made outside the home and office, a BT spokesman told BBC News Online.

And costs of maintenance and repair of vandalism damage have prevented BT's phone box division, BT Payphones, from profiting from the global reduction in telecommunications costs.

Remote booths "uneconomic"

Malcolm Newing, director of BT Payphones, said: "We have thousands of public services phone boxes in remote and rural areas that do not make enough revenue even to cover their cleaning costs."

But he restated the company's commitment to providing "a valuable service to customers, even in rural areas", and said BT had almost doubled the number of phone boxes since it was privatised in 1984.

The revision also includes the introduction of a new flat rate charge of 11p per minute for in-country calls. Two charges currently apply - 9p a minute for local calls and 14p per minute when ringing elsewhere in Britain.

The 11p per minute and 20p minimum charges will also apply to directory inquiry calls.

Directory inquiry calls have been free from phone boxes.

Payphone makeover

While BT Payphones reported a turnover of £300m last year, profits are declining, and Mr Newing said the charge increases were part of a drive to "reinvent" the payphone.

Within the last 18 months, BT has introduced Multiphones, which offer internet access, text phones, designed for deaf callers, and the AdCall service, which offers free calls to users willing to listen to adverts broadcast down the line.

"We need to maintain profitability to support investment in new developments," Mr Newing said.

A spokesman for Oftel, which is undertaking an investigation next year into payphones unconnected to Friday's announcement, said it would consider the Consumers' Association's comments once they were formally received.