Last call: Country’s few remaining payphone boxes to be removed after almost a century

Ireland’s last remaining payphone boxes will be removed over the coming months, almost 100 years after they first appeared on the streets, telecommunications company Eir has announced.

Since their introduction, payphone boxes have been a familiar sight around Ireland, serving the public before the advent of mobile phones and at a time when landlines were an exception rather than the rule in Irish homes.

At their peak, around 3,300 payphone boxes dotted the Irish landscape, complemented by moret than 5,000 indoor units. The Universal Service Obligation (USO) for the provision of public payphones was removed in 2020 due to steady decline in their usage.

The removal of the last payphone boxes by the end of this year was “a symbolic step towards a more connected, digital future”, said Una Stafford, managing director of open Eir networks.

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“While we close this chapter in Ireland’s telecommunication history, we open another, focusing on innovative solutions that align with the needs of our communities and the environment,” she said.

Since the removal of the USO, Eir has implemented programmes to repurpose the structures. Six of the concrete Posts & Telegraphs kiosks now house life-saving defibrillators.

Two towns have creatively adapted newer aluminium kiosks into tourist pods, offering leaflets and information about local places of interest and another has been transformed into a religious shrine.

As a tribute to the end of the payphone era, Eir has restored a 100-year-old ‘K1′ kiosk, the first type of payphone box introduced in Ireland, for public exhibition later this year. The kiosk is one of only seven known examples in Ireland or the UK and will be donated to preserve a part of Irish heritage.

Eir has partnered with EasyGo to install 142 electric vehicle charging stations. To date, 76 rapid electric vehicle chargers have been put in place.

Of the 105 remaining kiosks, 11 will become “digital pedestals”, while the other 94 are set to be removed by the end of the year.

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