Coventry gets new black phone boxes

The booths have a payphone, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen featuring journey planners, maps and local points of interest



Black phone boxes based on the iconic red design of the 20th century are springing up across Coventry.

The booths - which have a payphone, Wi-Fi and a touchscreen featuring journey planners, maps and local points of interest - are a private project by New World Payphones and are separate to BT’s red phone boxes.

The "beautiful" boxes also feature huge digital advertising screens down one side.

Revenue generated from the adverts will go towards weekly maintenance and upkeep of the boxes.

And the company says for every new phone box it installs, it will plant a new tree "in a nearby street".

The first black box has been installed on the corner of Trinity Street and Ironmonger Row.

Justin Cochrane, CEO of Clear Channel UK, the owner of New World Payphones, said: “These new phone boxes provide a host of benefits to the public including telephone, and local area information.

“This launch will also see us de-clutter high streets and plant hundreds of trees in urban areas while providing a timely boost for British manufacturing."

Apprentice presenter Lord Sugar is also on board with the new look boxes, which can also be seen in London.

“Along with the likes of red buses, Piccadilly Circus and Big Ben, the inner-city phone box has been synonymous with Britain’s cultural heritage since their introduction nearly one hundred years ago,” said Lord Sugar.

“It is therefore fitting that Amscreen – a British company – have been charged with manufacturing the remodelling of this classic design icon.”

Ugly and drafty no privacy and cold how can you hear what the other person is saying with so much traffic noise and foot fall noise we now have with so many living here . The Red phone box was to show instantanly its representing Britain as so the Red bus so what is black then representing.