Sir,

Re: Public phone box callers and Shoppers Beware.

Further to Miss Skey's 'Shoppers Beware' letter in last week's Observer and my own recent communication printed on the Letters page, concerning my perceived need for fat cats BT to have competitors in Tenby and the rest of Pembrokeshire, I wish to raise more concerns.

Due to a problem with my own telephone, it was necessary for me to use a public phone box last week. The nearest one to my home is that by the Hazelwell Club on St. Florence Parade. Finding that it would only accept cards, I inserted my Visa card. I needed to telephone two UK landline numbers. They were not 0870 or 0845 numbers, just normal STD codes. And each call was of no more than five minutes duration.

Later, calling at my bank, I discovered that BT had charged me £6.85 for each call, i.e. £13.70 in total! How can this possibly be justified by BT? Naturally I shall be making deeper enquiries about this situation, but surely it adds more grist to my mill in raising the awareness of local people as to just how avaricious BT is.

I hope Tenby-ites and other Pembrokeshire people will join me in lobbying both their local town councils and Pembrokeshire County Council to invite alternative telephone line providers, such as NTL, into our area. And I believe for those who occasionally need to use public phone boxes, that telephone companies other than BT can provide them.

Ruthie Alton,

Tenby.