Artist Travels Across Britain to Keep Rural Phone Boxes Open

William Arnold has spent the past four years traveling around the United Kingdom to make telephone calls from old British Telecom phone boxes—a journey driven by the fear that some of the boxes could otherwise be removed. According to BBC News, rural phone boxes must receive at least 52 calls each year to avoid being shut down. Arnold, an artist living in Cornwall, has taken on the unusual task of helping meet that requirement, recently traveling to the remote Isle of Lewis in Scotland to use one of the boxes there. The red booths are increasingly obsolete as mobile phones become widespread, but British Telecom continues to maintain some in rural locations. Their continued operation depends, in part, on whether people still use them. Arnold’s phone-box expeditions are supported through crowdfunding. The calls themselves cost him about £36 when he makes the required 52, but the travel involved in reaching distant parts of Britain is considerably more expensive. His trips turn a routine usage requirement into a nationwide tour of the country’s remaining rural telephone boxes, one call at a time.