TRANSFORMATION OF PUBLIC PHONE BOOTHS

[Anchor Lead]

Public phone booths have pretty much turned obsolete. While there is no one using them, they can’t be removed altogether for contigency reasons, such as disasters. However these phone booths are being transformed into charging stations for electric motorcycles. Such stations will be set up at some 1,000 phone booths in Seoul alone by 2025.

[Pkg]

A phone booth in the middle of a bustling town in Seoul. 30 minutes pass and not one person has used it.

[Soundbite] Kim Jong-gi(Seoul Resident) : "The phones have effectively no value. I don’t feel the need to keep them around."

Around 62-hundred phone booths exist on the streets of Seoul. Their average use is less than four times a day. Not only is their maintenance a challenge, but the phones are an eyesore to the city landscape.

[Soundbite] An Sun-bok(Seoul Resident) : "Trash, such as cigarette butts and empty bottles, are often dumped here."

These days, the neglected booths are getting a new lease of life as charging stations for electric motorcycles. In the capital city alone, 150 will be installed this year which will expand to one thousand by 2025. The charging stations will first appear in areas with high motorcycle traffic, such as Gangnam. A single charge can cover 50 kilometers. A delivery motorcycle travels about 150 kilometers a day on average. So they need to charge at least 3 times, and the stations are a great help.

[Soundbite] Jeon Woo-seok(Seoul Resident) : "Charging time takes about two and a half hours at home. But here, it’s a swap. So it takes less than a minute."

Smarphone apps can be used for charging fees while small business owners can also get a 30% discount. Subsidies for purchasing as many as ten electric motorbikes will also be provided per one charging station. The Seoul city government also plans to replace 35-thousand motorcycles with internal combustion engines, that cause pollution and noise, with all electric ones by the year 2025.