telecom
The last phone booths fight for survival
The yellow phone booths haven’t been around for years – only when they’ve been given a second life, like here as a museum.
© Jens Büttner / DPA
If a telephone booth brings in less than 50 euros per month in the long term, it will be dismantled. However, Deutsche Telekom does not want to completely give up the public telephones (yet).
Children of the 90s still remember collecting telephone cards with funny motifs in order to be able to make calls anywhere in Germany. However, with the advent of cell phones and later smartphones, the popularity and necessity of the famous yellow houses decreased. Only a few public lines have remained, mostly in the form of so-called telephone stations, i.e. columns with a telephone module and possibly two panes on the side.
To the Editorial network Germany Deutsche Telekom gave an up-to-date overview of the remaining stock. At least 14,200 telephone booths are currently available in Germany. In the past three years, the stock has therefore fallen by around 16 percent, since 2006 95,800 telephones have disappeared from public spaces, a decrease of 87 percent. There is no need to worry about the reason for the disappearance of the devices. Since almost everyone has a phone in their pocket these days, fewer public contact points are needed.
No final end of the phone booth in sight
Even if the installation and operation of telephone booths is certainly not a future market, Telekom is currently not planning to completely dismantle all locations. According to the statement, this is still worthwhile, especially in public places such as airports, train stations or in shopping streets. Only when the monthly turnover of a cell falls below 50 euros does the operation become a negative business. Only then does dismantling come into question.
By the way, the famous yellow telephone boxes really don’t exist anymore. In April 2019, Telekom dismantled the last yellow cell in the Bavarian place of pilgrimage, St. Bartholomä. Telekom dedicated one to decommissioning sentimental blog entry and a youtube video. The first yellow plastic houses were erected in 1978.
If you can’t get enough of the telephone booths, you can still call them from time to time Ebay Classifieds the chance to get hold of a copy for your own four walls. There is even the possibility of taking over a telephone booth directly at Deutsche Telekom. You only need one for that contact form Fill in and receive an offer, depending on availability. Small damper: The yellow cult houses have not been available for years.