Telewest-Eurobell payphones

[m419]

Does anyone know what happened to the Eurobell public street payphone kiosks?

I haven't seen them in a while, has Telewest withdrawn the service?

Telewest could introduce a new public payphone service to compete against BT and in some areas of london; NWP Spectrum.

If Telewest operated public payphones, then they could make a lot of money by allowing companies to advertise on the kiosk glass,take advantage of using there own telephone network to avoid paying line rental to BT and operating internet units which could allow the public to access Blueyonder Broadband internet on the move! Telewest would make thousands.

However these services would only be commercially viable on high streets and large residential areas were the Telewest networks is present.

Companies who advertise on kiosk glass pay a lot of money each month to advertise on the kiosks and would therefore pay for maintainance and generate profit. Customers making voice calls and accessing internet would also generate profit.

If telewest does this, then NTL and Wight Cable should follow.

Interphone Public Networks: (The orange coloured kiosks and former Mercury Payphone network) owned by Central Payphones (Infolines) went bankrupt because the previous owners (Premier Group) (www.premier-payphones.co.uk) neglected the payphone kiosks and fell into a bad state of disrepair and Central Payphones ran out of money. Now, most interphone kiosks have been replaced by new kiosks under NWP Spectrum's ownership(www.nwpspectrum.co.uk) Some payphones in central London are connected to the Cable and wireless and NTL networks. The company decided not to use Telewest anymore because they cannot pass any commision to the payphone company when people call 0800 numbers. NWP Spectrum has also ceased some of it's NTL lines and switched to BT Wholesale.

More information on payphones operated by BT and other companies can be found at www.redphonebox.info

[MovedGoalPosts]

I very much doubt there is money in payphones in this day and age of the mobile. I anticipate vandalism and the like would no doubt negate the slim profits made by advertising and call fees.

BT provide payphones but I suspect only because they have to.

[m419]

NWP makes millions each year from it's payphone business.

BT and kingston communications have to comply by the universal obligations:

*Provide access to 999,100,112 and all 0800 services.
*provide access to directory services
*provide access to other service provider calling cards
*maintain kiosks and phones
*Cannot remove kiosks unless they have been told to do so by authorities. Or if the community have not opposed BT kiosks being removed.

NWP,Infolines,Euro-payphone ect... have to comply by the General conditions of entitlement:

*Provide access to 999,112 and 100 services
*Do not have to maintain kiosks
*Can remove or place a kiosk when the company wants to.
*Bar access to freephone services if they want to.
*Do not have to provide access to 118 directory services.

Telewest would have more freedom than BT obviously.

[Stuart]

I did read that thanks to Mobile phones, BT Payphones made their first loss (and quite a substantial one at that) in 2002.

Oh, and m419, in our town (which is by no means small), in the last 10 years, we have gone from 10 BT phone boxes and two interphone ones to one BT phone box and one (very badly damaged) NWP one. I cannot believe the local authority would have asked for all those payphones to be removed.

[m419]

It is up to the local community to complain to the council and they will prevent BT from removing it's kiosks. BT first display a notice in each kiosk they want to remove, they let councils and community to decide whether or not the kiosk is necessary. If the council recieves a number of complaints, then BT will not remove it!

With regards to the Interphone kiosks, NWP has no connection with Interphone, however NWP did purchase a lot of their kiosks within the London area and glasgow areas. Interphone kiosks are usaully bright orange coloured.If it is black or red and yellow, then it may be operated by NWP Spectrum.

Which area do you live and where is the interphone kiosk located as I will contact the company who may own this kiosk. Infolines currently operate 187 kiosks throughout the UK (Not London) and many were either sold to NWP or gone into liquidation.

Remember, companies other BT can remove kiosks when they want to and nobody has the power to stop the companies installing or removing kiosks. However,when companies go bankrupt or the companies place certain assets into liquidation, then the councils will have to remove and decommision disused kiosks.

Contact Numbers:

Interphone/Infolines Public Networks: 01827-262-300
NWP Spectrum: 0800-211-299 (Sales@nwpspectrum.co.uk)
BT Payphones: 0800-661-610 payphones@bt.com

Originally Posted by Stuart C

I did read that thanks to Mobile phones, BT Payphones made their first loss (and quite a substantial one at that) in 2002.

Oh, and m419, in our town (which is by no means small), in the last 10 years, we have gone from 10 BT phone boxes and two interphone ones to one BT phone box and one (very badly damaged) NWP one. I cannot believe the local authority would have asked for all those payphones to be removed.

[m419]

Interphone started off in 1995 when IPM (an italian payphone company) purchased assets(kiosks) from Mercury Communications now trading as Cable and Wireless and residential sector as NTL.

IPM replaced most of the kiosks purchased, however payphone popularity via IPM-Interphone's payphone network never materialised and customer volume was very low from 1997 onwards. The company invested £13 Million between 1995 and 1999 and did not generate any profit. Premier Managed Payphones also known as Premier-Group purchased IPM UK and the interphone division and renamed it Infolines Premier in 2000. The Premier Group neglected the interphone kiosks for 2 years and nearly all 1,400 were out of order. In 2002, Central Payphones purchased Interphone and tried to improve the situation with the dangerous and out of order kiosks. The company ran out of money and sold most kiosks to NWP Spectrum who have now replaced all kiosks purchased. Interphone went into liquidation together with 372 kiosks. Central payphones now trading as Infolines Public Networks retained 187 kiosks.

Mercury Communications operated payphones from 1986-1995 and experienced the business to be non-commercially viable due to cleaning costs and maintainance plus taxes. Customer volumes were also very low even though Mercury offered a better service than British Telecom.

The only way to increase payphone usage is to ban pre-pay mobile services. The goverment has stated that children shouldn't use mobiles as they can have effects to their health due to the radiation. Therefore, by withdrawing pre-pay services, children will have to use payphones and other pre-pay customers will have to use payphones too.

Payphone usage has increased very little since late 2003 but will probably not last. BT stated that the new tariff on BT payphones is better value for money (30p for 15 minutes) which is equivalent to 2p per minute to call landlines. This is a lot cheaper than mobiles!

Originally Posted by m419

It is up to the local community to complain to the council and they will prevent BT from removing it's kiosks. BT first display a notice in each kiosk they want to remove, they let councils and community to decide whether or not the kiosk is necessary. If the council recieves a number of complaints, then BT will not remove it!

With regards to the Interphone kiosks, NWP has no connection with Interphone, however NWP did purchase a lot of their kiosks within the London area and glasgow areas. Interphone kiosks are usaully bright orange coloured.If it is black or red and yellow, then it may be operated by NWP Spectrum.

Which area do you live and where is the interphone kiosk located as I will contact the company who may own this kiosk. Infolines currently operate 187 kiosks throughout the UK (Not London) and many were either sold to NWP or gone into liquidation.

Remember, companies other BT can remove kiosks when they want to and nobody has the power to stop the companies installing or removing kiosks. However,when companies go bankrupt or the companies place certain assets into liquidation, then the councils will have to remove and decommision disused kiosks.

Contact Numbers:

Interphone/Infolines Public Networks: 01827-262-300
NWP Spectrum: 0800-211-299 (Sales@nwpspectrum.co.uk)
BT Payphones: 0800-661-610 payphones@bt.com

http://www.redphonebox.info/nonbt.htm



Interesting read about NTL and Telewest kiosks among others

Front page
http://www.redphonebox.info/phonebox.htm

[m419]

Originally Posted by Angelus

http://www.redphonebox.info/nonbt.htm

I already know about the site. I am helping the site manager with the non-BT section. I supplied the information regarding Interphone on that site.

Mercury a division of Cable and Wireless is now trading as Cable and Wireless amongst other companies.

Mercury Payphones: Taken over by IPM in 1995
Mercury One2one: Bought by Deutsch Telekom in 2001.(T-Mobile)
Mercury Residential: Bought by NTL in 2000
Mercury Paging: Now trading as Pager One
All other services and businesses are still owned by Cable and wireless.

Videotron,Atlantic cable and Nynex cable companies were established in the late 80's/early 90's and were sold to Cable and Wireless in 1996 and traded as Cable and wireless(CWC Comms) until 2000 when NTL consumerCorp purchased residential services.

Videotron and comcast are still in business in USA and Canada.

Eurobell was established in early 90's by a american cable company and was sold to Deutsch Telekom sometime in mid-90's and then sold to Telewest Communications in 2000.

Mercury used cable company phone lines for their payphones were a Mercury line was not nearby. IPM continued to use Mercury lines and a few cable lines after the sale of mercury payphones. Today, the kiosks now operated by NWP Spectrum are most that use the BT wholesale service.



Interesting read about NTL and Telewest kiosks among others

Front page
http://www.redphonebox.info/phonebox.htm