Bensai Keeyapaj continued by saying many of the telephones in the booths no longer work and people do not really use the ones that are still operational. She noted that the clean-up operation would start with the broken phones and also the booths which impeded pedestrian traffic on footpaths.
Ms Keeyapaj noted that a certain number of the booths in awkward locations had been erected without any planning permission and these would be the first to be pulled down by the Public Works Department. She finished off by saying the department would collaborate with TOT and other companies that owned the phone boxes to finalise a deadline.
Once a ubiquitous sight in Bangkok, increasing use of mobile telephones sounded the death knell for public telephones. Public Works Department representative Phuwadol Samankongsak stated that 20,000 public phone booths had been removed in the last seven years.
Public phone boxes consigned to history in Bangkok
News in Asia
Bangkok’s metropolitan authorities have announced that all public telephone boxes will be removed from streets and other locations. A spokesperson for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) stated earlier this week that there are still around 4,000 phone booths in areas under its jurisdiction.