Public phone booths in Srpska to become ATMs

(Photo: Ivana Vuksa)

- We are thinking about using them (phone booths) as delivery depots, ATMs or Wi-Fi hotspots. In that way, they would get a profitable purpose - said Zeljka Koljancic, the spokesperson of Poste Srpske, one of the companies responsible for phone booths in the territory of the Republic of Srpska.

She added that a trend of decreasing usage of phone booths was global, adding that such trend had not been changed anywhere yet, not even in the countries with a long tradition of their use.

- Not even their certain value for being a part of tradition or a tourist attraction could not help keep most of them in use - said Koljancic.

Owing to reduced interest, that is, reduced need for public phone booths, the revenue they generate has been on a decline over the last ten years.

The revenue from phone calls made from phone booths in the Republic of Srpska dropped from KM 2.3 milllion (EUR 1.18 million) in 2006 to KM 179,000 in 2014.

Similar ideas for public phone booths can also be heard in the Croatian telecom firm Hrvatski Telekom. Their possible solutions for transforming phone booths include: ticket booth for public city transportation services or turning them into a specific ad space.