bbb_uk wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 7:13pm:


You obviously missed the Ofcom consultation proposing that BT be allowed to set a range of variable payphone box charges to see how it affected demand in different areas.

I know someone who responded to that consulation.

I see that one consultation was actually for a non uniform tariff for geographic charging but the start of the slippery slope and all that kind of thing........

See www.ofcom.org.uk/consult/condocs/pcb/

I believe this whole ripoff 084/7 payphone pricing strategy is reliant on the monstrous charges levied for 084/7 and them not being the same as 01/02/03 not being shown in the phone box.  All the marketing there goes on about how cheap it is to make a long national rate phone call (while conveniently forgetting to mention that 084/7 are not charged at these rates)

I see only there were only four responses to that consultation and BT was one of them.  At least one member of this forum made the effort though.  Futile and completely ignored by OfCoN though it of course undoubtedly was.

Also what is the betting that an FOI to Ofcom would reveal the percentage of 084/7 calls made on a payphone to be far higher than from a domestic landline number.  Think tourists and people looking for a room for the night or needing to speak to the gas company etc, etc, etc.

Dave wrote on Aug 26^th, 2008 at 8:02pm:


Pretty irrelevant as none of them can fully cover their costs now unless they are turned in to say email and internet terminals and then only in a busy area.

The point of them though is that sometimes you go out and your mobile phone battery goes flat or you drop it in ditch by accident on walk in the wet welsh hills.  What then if there are no payphones to bail you out in such a circumstance?  Flag down a lift as a hitch-hiker from a driver who turns out to be a maniacal psychopath perhaps.

Its pretty obvious that most of the calls from these boxes must actually be to 084/7 call centres.  If that wasn't the case then why on earth do you think BT would want to make these 084/7 call charges so high.

This is BT we're talking about.  Don't feel sorry for them.  They make huge and outrageous profits elsewhere on things like their near monopoly of phone line rental in rural areas either as BT Retail or through a WLR operator who pays BT Wholesale more or less the same price.  They can afford to be made to prop up a few loss making phone boxes as a public service.  Its just that Ofcom's daft rules say it must not do this as it might put other competitor payphone box operators (who no longer exist by and large) out of business.

The cost of calls to 0871 numbers is now £1 per minute from BT Payphones. I have updated the table in the original post.

"Pretty irrelevant as none of them can fully cover their costs now unless they are turned in to say email and internet terminals and then only in a busy area."

bt did have a contract with Marconi to provide internet capable payphones
but later cancelled the contract with marconi replaced them with normal payphones as they were making a loss and then proceded to remove certain loss leading payphones ( one near us was removed recently)

here is a page from 2005 when the deal was first announced:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2745060/BT-and-Marconi-in-e-payphone-deal.htm...

and when marconi failed to get the contract renewed:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/03/marconi_bt/

and another intresting post:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/migrationtemp/2813941/Locals-see-red-over-pho...

this post was taken in bolton ( which is where i live!!)
bt are adding these new phoneboxes which are supplied by JC Decaux in the uk and Clear Channel NI in northen ireland. ( the new payphone is called Connect 6)

"BT has teamed up with JC Decaux, the French poster company, to roll out an estimated 1,600 of the new kiosks around Britain. If advertisers like them, they could bring in £4m a year in shared revenues."

maybe the extra advertising will help reduce the loss made by rarely used payphones?

Current call charges from BT Payphones are 20 pence per minute for 0844, 0845 and 0870 numbers.

Yet 0843 numbers are apparently 13.95 pence per minute. Perhaps this is a typo or an old rate.