pay phone story

Name	Cyprus phone booths (understood that Cyprus is a separate republic, but I will include these here for now)
Date	There are a number of K6 cast iron booths, mostly from the British colonial period
Manufacturer	BPO foundries in the UK
Links	K6 used in the UK

Above- British K6 phone boxes (on the example on the right you can see where the Crown has been removed). Cyprus gained independence from Britain on 16 August 1960. K6 kiosks appear in Cypriot photographs from the early 1960s, and there are still a number of them surviving in both the Greek and Turkish sides of the island. The Greek side ones above appear to have Schlumberger card phones in them.

Phone boxes and payphones in Cyprus

Cyprus’s phone boxes tell a story that stretches from British rule into the mobile phone age. The island became independent in 1960, and Cyta records that its traditional cast-iron public booths were in use from the early 1960s. Their British-style design remained familiar, but many were painted green. On some, the British imperial emblem was removed after independence; the marks are still visible. The phones first took coins, then telephone cards from the mid-1980s.

Later Cyta cardphones appeared in newer glass booths, like the one photographed in Limassol. As mobile use grew, public calls declined sharply. Cyta says it withdrew payphones from almost all areas under its administration in 2021, so a surviving booth should not be assumed to contain a working phone. Its account does not establish the present status of booths in northern Cyprus.

Their value now lies in what visitors can see and learn. Since 2024, Cyta has restored traditional green booths as “Time Capsules” in towns and villages. Inside are bilingual displays and QR-linked material about telecommunications history. The restored boxes make distinctive stops for tourists while preserving a small, tangible part of everyday Cypriot life.

Above- locally made booths from the late colonial period and the 60s.

Above- interesting recent Cypriot booths. The ones on the left are a variant of the British KX series, and the one on the right is Spanish (with a Danish GNT payphone).