How BT is still making millions on payphones

BT’s ageing phone boxes still make the company millions of pounds in profits despite a 90pc drop in calls, a rival has claimed.

Vodafone said the kiosks raked in £14.5m a year through advertising, banks putting cash machines inside them and usage by customers. BT rejected the claims insisting the payphones were not profitable.

The telecoms giant is in the process of scrapping 20,000 of the boxes, which still number more than 40,000 in total. BT has sold some of the least profitable boxes – often those in villages – for just £1 to communities who want to keep them.

But research commissioned by Vodafone said BT’s ‘payphone business seems to be lucrative when all revenue sources are considered’.

A BT spokesman said: ‘It’s nonsense to suggest BT’s payphone business is making a huge profit.’