And literally the next year, 1986, I bought my first mobile phone! It then only took around 10 years to reach the stage where almost everyone could afford a mobile, so BT's future public phone system came to nothing within its own development time! I do miss the old red boxes though, the clean and un vandalised ones felt reassuringly secure.
There was a video circulating in BT when I worked there for battery safety when they shorted 2 banks of batteries I wonder if anybody has it? It was pretty violent from what I remember with a few bent bus bars
"We see them lasting 20 years but it will take 10 years to roll them out" and "we've been to every country in the world to look at their phone boxes". Ah how British civil servant of them, when the tax payer was picking up the bill 😂
New payphones like anything new look smart and easy to use but give it a few years and with or without easy clean bottoms and digital handset some people will abuse whats there and make these new phone boxes even more of an eye sore on the streets than an aging bright red box.
Did that man really think through what he was saying? The idea for the ‘man’ (presumably no women could make this call) to be able to dial in ‘his’ own phone number prior to the call ‘he’ makes to charge to their own account then dial the number they wish to ring. Utterly mesmerising! Completely safe and not open to abuse at all!
Well that's how the English language works. At least it did before the women's sensitivity movement. Singular constructions use Male pronouns. It's ghastly to use singular constructions with plural pronouns, as you just did.
@@lukemwills The point is that this system let you make phone calls for free by giving the system someone else's phone number instead of your own. Then whoever that was ended up stuck with it.
I joined BT Power Section in Croydon in 1983 and I was involved in making the "Croydon" range of kiosk. Lots of overtime.
Well this is just fascinating and very cool! Thank you so much Alex :)
This video had received "100" likes when I watched it. 100 = the number for the Operator. Synchronicity.
I remember being shown this when I was training at BT. Great memories thanks Alex.
And literally the next year, 1986, I bought my first mobile phone! It then only took around 10 years to reach the stage where almost everyone could afford a mobile, so BT's future public phone system came to nothing within its own development time! I do miss the old red boxes though, the clean and un vandalised ones felt reassuringly secure.
We had the red phone boxes in Australia as well, they were quite nice. Must have got rid of most of them in the late 70's.
There was a video circulating in BT when I worked there for battery safety when they shorted 2 banks of batteries I wonder if anybody has it? It was pretty violent from what I remember with a few bent bus bars
I was surprised to learn thst this style of phone box weighs 750KG. Three quarters of a ton!
(1650lbs, three fourths of a ton for the yanks)
And who knew that they would all be obsolete.
Awesome video
The title is pretty much a contradiction in terms
Top Gear
"We see them lasting 20 years but it will take 10 years to roll them out" and "we've been to every country in the world to look at their phone boxes". Ah how British civil servant of them, when the tax payer was picking up the bill 😂
New payphones like anything new look smart and easy to use but give it a few years and with or without easy clean bottoms and digital handset some people will abuse whats there and make these new phone boxes even more of an eye sore on the streets than an aging bright red box.
Well that was certainly a nose.
That Ratners....!
10:25 my granny is called granny Smyth lol
Does she like apples?
Yeah they will be obsolete by 2010😂
Did that man really think through what he was saying? The idea for the ‘man’ (presumably no women could make this call) to be able to dial in ‘his’ own phone number prior to the call ‘he’ makes to charge to their own account then dial the number they wish to ring. Utterly mesmerising! Completely safe and not open to abuse at all!
You are a peach!
gag
Well that's how the English language works. At least it did before the women's sensitivity movement. Singular constructions use Male pronouns. It's ghastly to use singular constructions with plural pronouns, as you just did.
That's just the way they spoke then.
The sexist man making the call would actually use what became known as BT Chargecard. Simple idea, never needed cash again. Look it up on wiki.
@@lukemwills The point is that this system let you make phone calls for free by giving the system someone else's phone number instead of your own. Then whoever that was ended up stuck with it.