We’ve started to see the emergence of digital kiosks in the London borough of Camden this week, with the first new units from BT’s “InLinkUK” system making their way into the London high streets. The kiosks provide a range of free services to city-dwellers, including public , charging stations, and even free calls to a range of mobile phones and landlines. The trade-off is that the back of the station is a huge digital billboard, used to build up cash for BT’s network from advertisements.
The trouble is, as exciting as these new digital developments might seem on the surface, it’s hard to see the InLinkUK kiosks as an innovation in a time when BT is struggling to provide the country with a level of fibre optic broadband that’s reliable enough to keep businesses running, and individuals happy. Surely, the focus should be on the rollout of high-speed internet, and not making the streets of London even more illuminated than they originally were?
The “InLinkUK” Situation
If you thought the name of the new kiosks was a little clunky, then you’re not the only one. BT was originally planning on calling the service “LinkUK” but were forced to launch under the slightly altered moniker, potentially because of trademark issues. After all, “Link” is the name of the network that connects all the UK ATMs together.
BT is claiming that these digital billboards will be giving customers WiFi speeds of as much as 16Gbps, but unless they’ve chosen to use 802.11ad WiGig, instead of something far more conventional – then we think that’s pretty unlikely. Particularly since we don’t actually have any smartphones that are supportive of WiGig yet.
The point of the InLinkUK kiosks was to replace any existing phone boxes that BT had on the UK streets with something more modern and innovative. However, the argument could be made that those boxes didn’t really need to be replaced with anything. I doubt anyone would mind if they all simply disappeared tomorrow.
By replacing over 1,000 payphones in cities across the UK with digital kiosks, there’s a chance that BT could just be leaving us with a lot more infrastructure that we need to tidy up in the following years when, like the phone box, the kiosk becomes outdated too.
The New UK Phone Box
According to the CEO for Wholesale and Ventures in BT, Gerry McQuade, the InLinkUK kiosks are “the phone box of the future“. The kiosks are smaller than traditional payphone boxes, and they also contain a range of sensors that are designed to gather information about noise pollution, outdoor temperature, and traffic conditions.
To a degree, then, it might be that these new kiosks do have a part to play in helping to deliver the smart city of the future. However, once again, it could be argued that there are far less disruptive ways of adding such sensors to the UK streets.
Right now, we’re left to wonder whether the kiosks are as exciting as BT portrays them to be, or just another novelty that’s soon to lose its appeal. In New York, similar boxes have already set the pace after users started accessing them to view porn on the sidewalk. All things considered, it’s not a great start…
