From this year, Telefónica will remove the remaining 14,824 telephone booths throughout Spain, after they have ceased to be a mandatory universal service. The Spanish National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) has been asking the Spanish government to eliminate this service for some time, but the executive has been postponing it year after year.
The operator who was obliged to maintain this service was Telefónica, after a tender called by the Ministry of Economy, which was usually abandoned because no operator applied. The last award took place two years ago, in December 2019, and the contract expired on December 31, 2021.
In Spain, at the end of 2020, an average of 0.17 calls were made per day from the 14,824 remaining booths. In other words, this translates into one call a week. Two years ago, twice as many calls were made: 0.37 a week, or one every three days, according to Telefónica.
The emergence of mobile telephony has been the main cause of the fall of disused cabins. Already in 2006 the number of mobile phone lines exceeded the number of inhabitants in Spain. Today, more than 88% of the population admit to having never used a cabin, which many years ago disappeared from neighboring countries of Spain, according to data from the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC).
In Barcelona, the last cabin with doors has recently disappeared, which Telefónica has just agreed to return to its original place – previously rehabilitated – to turn it into a book exchange point in the Sant Genís dels Agudells district.
Disappearance and history
The disappearance of the cabins will occur throughout the state, in accordance with the Ninth Transitional Provision of the draft General Telecommunications Bill. Thus, the company will begin to phase out all the cabins in the country seven years before they celebrate their first centenary, as confirmed by Europa Press.
Spain’s first telephone booth was installed in 1928 in the Vienna Park booth, now known as Florida Park, in El Retiro Park in Madrid. It was a device that was placed inside a box that opened to access the phone.