By BT Scotland’s math, annual maintenance costs for a phone box are about £1,600. This story profiles a Scotland phone box that was only used for three calls in an entire year, making its cost-per-call ratio rather conspicuous.
This story also mentions a “legendary” phone box: Ferness 261, featured in the 1983 film Local Hero, starring Burt Lancaster.
“A BT Scotland spokesman said: ‘BT is very conscious of its social obligations and has pledged its commitment to retain payphones particularly in remote and rural communities and for people who depend on the service. For example, no payphones have been removed from the Scottish islands under our rationalisation programme which began five years ago.
‘More than 60% of our payphones are loss-making but, despite the commercial pressures, we pride ourselves on providing a service that offers real value for money.'”