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Costs of calls from British public phones mid-20th century

costs of old phone calls

In the mid-20th Century, telephone technology was nowhere near the standard that it is today, so phone calls accordingly cost more in real terms than they do today. This page explores the factors that affected prices of these phone calls starting with local calls and going on to longer distance calls known as trunk calls.

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By the webmaster: her early recollections with further research and contributions from others who lived and worked at the time

Local calls

For local calls from a public phone, only pennies were needed. They were of course 'old' pre-decimal pennies.

Once the handset was lifted from its cradle, the coins were fed into a holding slot at the top of the box. Then the caller dialled the number that he or she wanted. If someone answered, the caller had to press Button A in order to be heard. If no-one answered, the caller pressed Button B and the coins were returned through a shoot underneath.

Charges, naturally increased over time, but the precise dates of these increases in practical terms depended on when a public call box could be upgraded to take more coins.

The definition of 'local' for telephone calls, mid-20th century

In 1951 a local call up was defined as up to 5 miles for charging purposes. It cost three old pennies (3d) on the A/B boxes and were not timed. I can't be sure what it was from the earlier public call boxes.

To soften the public's view of the price increase to four pennies (4d) from the first of January 1957, the definition of local was increased to 15 miles. These calls remained untimed.

Ian Jolly, one-time telephone engineer


Costs of local calls and the introduction of timed calls

As someone born in 1943 I can confirm that in the late 1940s public phone calls cost two old pennies (2d) without a time limit. Eventually this rose to 4d, still untimed.

Timing came in around the early 1960s when I was courting, and the cost was initially 3d for 3 minutes. Slots were then provided for 3d pieces and 6d bits. Some rural boxes had yet to be changed.

Colin Benbow


Local calls and decimalisation

In the late 1960s and early 1970s 4d (1.67p) was the minimum charge for a local call.

I believe the cost went to 2p when we were decimalised in 1971. However the 2p coin was the same size and weight as the old halfpenny and a lot of phones as well as slot machines would accept both coins - which made calls and purchases cheaper!

Neil Barnes

Trunk calls

Larger denomination coins were needed for non-local calls which were known as trunk calls. These normally had to be put through to an operator at the telephone exchange by dialing O. You had to have a good supply of coins as you couldn't sure how much the cost would be.

Reverse charges calls

With the agreement of the person receiving the call, charges could be reversed by going through the operator. These calls were free to the caller, but I believe that the recipient had to pay some sort of premium.

Uses for reversed charges calls

In spite of the extra charge for a reversed call, it was useful, particularly if:

• You needed to make a phone call from a public phone, but didn't have any money, and

• You wanted to use somebody else's phone, but didn't want to put them to the expense of paying for the call.

Both of these were important to know about as a child/teenager in the 50s, 60's and 70's if you needed to be able to phone your parents.

Martin Bonner

Person-to-person calls

At an extra cost, a caller could go through the operator to put a call through to a particular named person. This was useful for expensive trunk calls if the person concerned was likely not to be available. Then the call would cost nothing.

Phone calls were expensive in real terms, and it was all too easy to run out of coins when chatting. Pips would sound as a warning, then a few seconds later, the line would go dead unless more money was fed in. If the caller expected a long conversation, he or she could feed in a lot of coins at the outset as pressing Button B at the end of the call returned unused coins. However, the process was fiddly and people didn't like to carry a lot of coins around because pre-decimal coins were so large and heavy.

Example of value for money with a person-to-person call

On one occasion my friend and I got exceptional value for our money, albeit with a waste of our time: We made a person to person call to a friend in a London Hall of Residence. It took over an hour to find him and bring him to the phone, but in the end the call cost just a few pence because it was only charged from when he came to the phone and confirmed his name.

James Chalmers

Prepaid calls - the phonecard

Before the 1980s, the only way to pay for a phone call from a public call box was either with coins, by reversing the charges or by illegal means. That changed in the 1980s with the phonecard.

prepaid phonecard for a 1980s public phone box

A prepaid phonecard about to be used in a public phone box

Phonecards could be bought from retail outlets for specific numbers of units which could buy an equivalent time of a phone call from a public call box. I had such a phonecard, but seldom had any cause to use it because my calls were non-urgent and my home had a landline phone.

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