A third of public payphones are not in full working order, BT has admitted.
The telecoms giant, which made a pre-tax profit of £418million in the three months to June, was last night accused of ‘failing in its duty’ to maintain the network.
Regulator Ofcom said it was ‘concerned’ about how many payphones are not fit for use. BT, which is obliged to retain a ‘reasonable network’ of the phones, said it spends £5million each year on maintaining them.
British Telecom has admitted that one third of public payphones are not in full working order
But the company’s own figures show that out of 40,000 street phone boxes still in service, only 66 per cent can be used to make a chargeable call.
Of the 20,000 phones in areas of social need, such as in places with no mobile phone signal, 16 per cent do not fully function.
Labour’s Clive Betts said BT had failed in its duty to maintain phone boxes across the country
BT said that where chargeable calls cannot be made, reverse charging, freephone and emergency calls are often still available.
Nicola Lowery, a district councillor at Telford and Wrekin council in Shropshire, said: ‘I can understand that from a commercial point of view BT is not making much money from phone boxes any more. But I do think they have a duty of care, particularly in areas where mobile phone coverage isn’t completely reliable.’
Labour MP Clive Betts, chairman of the communities and local government select committee, accused BT of ‘failing in their duty to keep phone boxes maintained’.
BT says although 33,000 calls are still made each year, some phones are used as little as once a month and more than half lose money.
A spokesman said: ‘We do our best to maintain our public payphones, but the impact of theft, vandalism, weather and wear and tear means there will always be some that are not working.’