In an exciting announcement, BT and Global, the Media & Entertainment Group, are joining forces on a 10-year project. The initiative will aim to modernise the UK’s traditional payphones and broaden digital hubs across hundreds of local communities. This partnership is born out of the desire to bolster connectivity and generate hyper-local advertising opportunities in over 200 towns and cities across the country.
According to the agreement, Global will continue overseeing the street furniture advertising sales for BT for the next ten years. However, the most remarkable aspect is the transformation of BT’s payphones, as exclaimed by Bas Burger, CEO of BT Business, in the press release. Burger hailed the payphones as an iconic feature of UK streets and saw this development as a progressive leap into the future.
The range of BT Group’s street furniture covers conventional payphones, ATMs and Street Hubs. Street Hubs are designed to offer public Wi-Fi, local communication services and, for some, even extend EE’s mobile network to offer 4G and 5G connectivity. In the upcoming decade, starting in 2025, Global is set to revamp up to 2,000 of these BT’s conventional payphones and kiosks into state-of-the-art Street Hubs. It is also set to take up the mantle of marketing as well as advertising sales for BT’s existing 959 Street Hubs.
While Global executes this transformation, the responsibility of creating mobile and Wi-Fi connections at these locations will remain with BT. These revamped Street Hubs will offer a connectivity speed of up to 1Gbps within a 150m radius. Additionally, they will be equipped with a dedicated 999 calling button, USB ports for device charging, touchscreen tablets that display real-time public information and screens for digital advertising at street level.
