A British Mission to Save the Red Phone Booth in the United Kingdom

- With just over 10,000 red phone booths remaining in the United Kingdom, photographer William Arnold is leading a campaign to try to save them by making 52 phone calls. Arnold travels remarkable distances to save these booths, as in one case, he traveled nearly 2,700 kilometers round trip.

The most important question you might ask yourself is: why? Why would someone travel all this distance to save a red phone booth that is hardly used and half of which is submerged in water?

In addition to cultural and aesthetic reasons, William believes that phone booths in rural areas, such as those in his Cornwall constituency in Britain, where signal is very weak in some areas, represent a lifeline, especially during storms when phone lines may be disrupted. The British telecommunications company, known as BT, manages the majority of phone booths in the UK.

According to British law set by the communications regulator Ofcom, a phone booth cannot be removed if it is the last one remaining in an area and meets certain criteria, including having made at least 52 calls in the past year. Therefore, Arnold goes to the phone booths and makes 52 calls to different people, stating: "There is something special about knowing that the ringing tone is still there, and that there may be a voice on the other end of the line."

Arnold's problem is that he may be fighting a somewhat losing battle, as according to Ofcom, there were 92,000 payphones in 1992. The latest figures from the British telecommunications company show that the number has halved.

Many of them have been converted into book exchange points or defibrillators, and the British telecommunications company allows local communities to adopt them. In a statement, the British telecommunications company said: "Today, with 98% of the adult population using a mobile phone, and with significant improvements in mobile network coverage, the use of payphones has seen a massive decline across the UK."

It added: "The number of calls made from our public phones has decreased by about 90% over the past decade, and we continue to review our remaining payphone network, converting many of them into modern street hubs, enabling thousands of local communities to adopt the kiosks, and removing the kiosks that are not used." In a statement to Afq News, the "Ofcom" authority said: "Public payphones can still play a vital lifeline role when no other options are available.

For this reason, we have strict rules preventing the removal of phone boxes that are considered essential, including those located in areas with poor mobile phone signal or high accident rates." A man disguises himself as a bird and walks 85 kilometers in Britain..