People in Oxford are among the first in the country to try new payphones which can send e-mails and text messages.
BT Payphones has installed 2,700 hi-tech 'Textphones' in 20 towns and cities across the UK, following a successful trial in Brighton last summer.
In Oxford, six Textphones are being installed in the city centre in phone boxes identified by special blue signs on the outside and posters inside the kiosks.
Text messages to mobiles phones costs 10p and e-mails equivalent to three quarters of an A4 page cost 20p.
The phone has a backlit blue-and-white visual display screen, which shows text and graphics.
Callers select services by pressing buttons on each side of the screen. A small keyboard under the screen is used to write and send text messages and e-mails to personal computers.
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