Phone boxes once epitomised telecommunications for the masses. Now they are in sharp decline. Only 3% of Britons used one to make a phone call in the past month, according to bt, the country's biggest telecoms firm. Calls have fallen by over 85% in the last five years. In rural areas over 12,000 booths are used for less than one call a month. Over 70% are losing money. Numbers have dropped from a record 92,000 in 2002, to 60,000 now.So they serve other functions, some sleazy: as pinboards for prostitutes, as impromptu urinals or as drug-dealers' dens. But spare street fixtures with electricity and phone connections can have more wholesome uses. Some have become wifi hotspots, gadget-charging stations and cash machines, or art galleries, tourist information centres and book exchanges. Others are fitted with defibrillators. One near Cambridge was a tiny pub for a night. A firm called X2 Connect exports them: a Saudi buyer turned one into a shower; another client made a cocktail cabinet.
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