Time to hang it up? Hong Kong Communication Authority considers retiring city’s profitless payphones
Review of the network to focus on the phones that make less than HK$1 per day
The humble payphone may be on its way out as declining usage has prompted the city’s communications watchdog to consider reducing the number across the city.
With more than half of Hong Kong’s 3,400 active payphones generating less than HK$1 in revenue per day, the Communication Authority said on Thursday it would conduct a review of the number and locations of the devices.
An authority spokesman said with mobile phone penetration as high as 238 per cent in the city, the demand for public payphones had waned, with almost all of them unprofitable.
By keeping only those public payphones that are still needed by the public, it will help free up space on the streets and alleviate potential obstruction problems
But despite the usage and profitability of the phones falling to almost nil, operators remain obliged under the city’s Telecommunications Ordinance to maintain a reasonable number of the devices because they are considered a basic service.
The authority’s review, however, will target phones that make less than HK$1 per day and it will not include emergency helplines located in remote areas.
