New Zealand phone booths to be disconnected and removed after more than 100 years

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A once-highly visible symbol of New Zealand cities and towns is about to disappear, after more than a century on our streets.

Almost 2000 public phone booths across New Zealand have reached the end of the line, after 116 years.

Spark said today that 90% of its booths had now been disconnected from copper wiring and they would be physically removed over the next two years.

The decision to call time on the booths comes after Spark and Auckland Council could not agree on a deal to modernise them with free calling, Wi-Fi and phone charging.

Those services would have been funded through digital advertising on the booths, and that was the sticking point.

Sources on both sides of the debate previously confirmed the council wanted its share of a return from the proposed advertising.