Oxford Lib Dems launch campaign against BT Street Hubs

BT’s Street Hubs provided more than nine million WiFi sessions across the country last year, however Lib Dems say they are predominantly used for advertising.

Various hubs are planned for Oxford city centre, with Lib Dems describing it as ‘an abuse of the public highway’.

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A photo of how the BT Street Hub would look in Park End Street. Picture via Oxford City Council

A statement on behalf of the party reads: “Pavements are for walking and wheeling, not for private companies to make money off a public asset.

“The proposed BT Street Hubs provide WiFi, free calls, device charging and a touchscreen information board, but they use the phone booth-sized screen to show adverts when not in use – that is, most of the time.

“Considering BT themselves admit that existing call boxes are barely used, and the vast majority of passers-by have other ways to access the internet, we say the alleged public service features are a fig leaf, with which they propose to abuse their rights to build on the public highway for private profit.”

A photo of how the BT Street Hub would look in Castle Street. Picture via Oxford City Council

Lib Dems are now seeking clarification of the law from the Government.

The party’s group leader in Oxford, Chris Smowton, said: “BT was given the right to use pavement space so they could deliver vital public services.

“This is a clear abuse of that power, with the ability to show adverts obviously more important to them than the paper-thin public service justification.”

A spokesperson for BT said the hubs provide free advertising for local businesses, and were used for more than 30,000 calls to the emergency services and 10,000 calls to charity helplines in the last year.

A photo of how the BT Street Hub would look in London Road, Headington. Picture via Oxford City Council

The spokesperson told the Oxford Mail: “BT’s Street Hubs are already providing a range of benefits for communities across the UK including free ultra-fast WiFi, rapid device charging, emergency calls and 5G mobile signal boosters.

“The units have been very well used, and last year provided over nine million WiFi sessions and 1.75 million free calls for people across the country.

“We are also supporting small businesses in areas where Street Hubs are installed, by gifting over £7.5 million in free advertising space to help them bounce back from the impact of Covid-19.

“The hubs also offer air quality and carbon emissions monitoring which can be used by councils to support sustainability.

“And some local authorities have made use of free space on the displays to share key information, such as public health advice during the pandemic.”

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This story was written by Liam Rice, he joined the team in 2019 as a multimedia reporter.

Liam covers politics, travel and transport. He occasionally covers Oxford United.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Liam.rice@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailLiamRice