Move over mobiles, pay phones are back

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IN�AN effort to reclaim profits and dignity,�British Telecom (BT)�has been talking-up its latest plans to create a new generation of pay phones, following the recent�launch of its internet accessible Multi.phone.

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BT's revenues from public phones have been severely dented by vandalism, theft and the�ever popular mobile phone. Over the last two years, the number of calls being made from Britain's 141,000 public phones has fallen by 37%.

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BT initially responded to this fall in revenue by increasing the minimum cost of a phone box call from 10p to 20p, but the move only served to drive customers further into the arms of mobile phone salesman.

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However, last week, BT's pay phone division struck a return blow when it unveiled 600�'Multi.phones'�to be put in shopping centres and train stations across the country.

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The Multi.phone, which looks very similar to the regular BT pay phone, includes a 12-inch colour, touch-sensitive screen and keyboard. BT has also installed free unlimited internet and email access via the phones, and customers can take full advantage of this offer until it ends on 14 June.

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Malcolm Newing, director of BT Payphones says, 'The Multi.phone is the first in a series of innovations from BT Payphones, which will reinvent the phone box as an indispensable multi-media kiosk for the 21^st century.'

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Yet, although the dust hasn't quite settled around the launch of the Multi.phone, BT is already talking-up its next innovation, which will be a high-technology follow-up that, judging from its description, will be more like Dr Who's tardis than a phone box.

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This forthcoming multi-media kiosk will function just like a regular public phone, but include a� full-sized keyboard and screen (for typing, playing games and surfing the net), a microphone and speakers, and video cameras (to see who you're speaking to).

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The proposed multi-media kiosk will have the ability to translate and understand different languages, photocopy,�print documents and pictures, download games and music from the web, record films and even exchange money. The walls of the phone box will be soundproof, and mounted with television screens�that can be used to watch TV or to create a 'virtual reality' backdrop that could transport the user from the bustle of the high street to a quiet glade in the Highlands.

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With built-in surveillance cameras, which will act as a deterrent for vandals, the kiosk will operate on a no cash basis, and will be designed to accept various other forms of monetary payment, including a range of credit cards.

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But don't bin your mobile phone just yet. The multi-media kiosk currently only exists in the minds of BT executives.�It's going to be a fair few years�before you can walk into a TV-lined phone box to download music from the net while talking to�your auntie in Africa, change your pounds to francs, print out�your emails�and even brush up on a foreign lanuage.