Spare Emergency Mobile

[Chef]

[the-gnole]

Public phones are becoming fewer and fewer. Just take a shufty next time you go out and see how many public phones you can spot. There used to be one on every corner, virtually.

There is a requirement for how many telephone boxes IIRC there are over 63,000 public payphones in the UK, not sure how that works out to amount in any area, but supposedly you should never be too far from one.

[Chef]

[the-gnole]

http://www.payphones.bt.com/publicpayph ... direct.pdf

Have a look at the list of public text phones in the pdf above might give a few clues

[Chef]

[the-gnole]

I think the older AA and RAC telephones were just a payphone in the black or blue boxes, but they have been withdrawing AA and RAC boxes due to mobile phones.

Pubs, clubs and public buildings might also have public telephones, like swimming pools, libraries, 24hr garages and shops, But if you don't use these places you might not know of them.

[Bladerunner]

What is a text direct phone when it is at home?

I would love to see the proof that there are that many payphones in the country. I know when I go into town there are 6 all next to each other. Maybe they just clump them together to justify the figure.

Where I live I cannot think where the nearest public phone box is. I know for a fact that there isn't one on my estate and there are hundreds of houses here.

Be lucky (It's good to talk)

[the-gnole]

Not always a "Phone box" though, as mentioned earlier a "Public Telephone" might be in a pub, club, Railway station or other public place, where I grew up as a kid there was one about 200yards away, next one was probably half a mile.

From where I am now there is one about half a mile away to the North, about a mile to the West in town there are the usual clump of baxes.

Might be an idea to check every street and public building within a mile to see what is available.