Switzerland’s last phone booth is history

Sign of the times: a Swisscom box in Lausanne in 2017. It had been converted into a book exchange Keystone

The last telephone box in Switzerland, in the northern city of Baden, was dismantled on Thursday. It will go on display at a museum in the Swiss capital.

An era in the history of Swiss telecommunications is thus coming to an end, an era that witnessed millions of declarations of love, tears and banal conversations in the little cabins that once stood on almost every street corner. 

Telecoms provider Swisscom said it wanted to mark the occasion, adding that the booth from Baden would be transplanted to the Museum of CommunicationExternal link in Bern. 

The last phone booth in French-speaking Switzerland, on the shores of Lake Geneva, was removed on October 31.

On the move 

The first box was installed in 1881 in the Fraumünster post office in Zurich. Peak booth was reached in 1995, when more than 58,000 could be found dotted around Swiss villages and cities. 

However, the success of mobile phones at the end of the 1990s heralded the decline of telephone booths. Between 2004 and 2016, the number of calls from Swisscom cabins fell by 95%. 

In 2018, Swisscom’s legal obligation to operate phone booths as part of its basic service ceased to apply. By then 90% of booths had already been dismantled because there was no longer any need for them. 

Since then boxes have continued to disappear, but many have found new uses, for example as retreats in open-plan offices, book exchanges or fumoirs. Putting one in your garden would cost CHF3,500 ($3,550) plus transport.

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Panoramic: phone booths at Basel Station (Claude Giger) Claude Giger

A telephone booth built into a chalet, designed by architect Gion A. Caminada, in the village of Vrin, canton Graubünden (Flurin Bertschinger/Ex-Press) Flurin Bertschinger/Ex-Press

Overgrown in Lucerne (Urs Keller/Ex-Press) Urs Keller/Ex-Press

Inaccessible: phone boxes at La-Chaux-de-Fonds (left) and Lucerne (Keystone) Keystone

Phone boxes always were a good way of getting a better view at Zurich’s Street Parade festival (Christian Nilson/13 Photo) Christian Nilson / 13 Photo

Romantic: a public phone box in Sent, canton Graubünden (Martin Rütschi/Keystone) Martin Rütschi/Keystone

Hemmed in: hopefully people always used the right door (Elisabetha Günthardt/Keystone) Elisabetha Günthardt/Keystone

Out of place: this phone box in Palagnedra, canton Ticino, is only used a few times a year (Gaetan Bally/Keystone) Gaetan Bally/Keystone

Storage: this phone box is also used as a storage depot at the Basel Fasnacht carnival (Georgios Kefalas/Keystone) Georgios Kefalas/Keystone

Telephone booth at the post office in Massagno, canton Tessin Martin Rütschi/Keystone

Blinding: a telephone booth at Effingerstrasse in Bern (Gaetan Bally/Keystone) Gaetan Bally/Keystone

Design: a public phone in Zurich with an electronic telephone book (Gaetan Bally/Keystone) Gaetan Bally/Keystone

Unused: parliamentarians use the public phone boxes at Bern’s parliament building to make calls on their mobile phones (Peter Klaunzer/Keystone) Peter Klaunzer/Keystone

Multi-use: a phone box in Castel San Pietro, canton Ticino, is transformed into a public lending library (Gabriele Putzu/Ti-Press) Gabriele Putzu/Ti-Press

The end: doors of old telephone boxes are recycled as a greenhouse in Les Bois, canton Jura (Sandro Campardo/Keystone) Sandro Campardo/Keystone

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