Phone Booths and Enclosures Key Terms

Learn key terms for types of phone booths and enclosures

By J. Stoltzfus, writer/programmer LOCAL CITIZEN

Though pay phones have largely gone the way of the dinosaur, phone booths and enclosures are still around. Phone booths used to house pay phones, but many of them are now either modernized kiosks and booths for a high-tech land line or spaces set aside for cell phone users. Knowing about the old and new types of phone booths and enclosures will help a business that wants to use these structures either for functional customer spaces or for a "retro" project for film or theater.

Kiosk

Many people refer to modern phone booth enclosures as kiosks. A kiosk has several definitions, but in regard to phone use, it is simple a place set aside by walls where people can use either a built in phone or a cell phone. Phone kiosks today may or may contain a regular land line for use.
Try: Get some kiosk definitions from Webopedia.

Old fashioned phone booth

The traditional or old fashioned phone booth was often an elaborate wooden structure housing a land line telephone. With cell phones, old fashioned phone booth are either being destroyed or converted to more modern applications.
Try: See more on the idea of old fashioned phone booths at WiseGeek.

Glass phone booths

Some traditional phone booths were glass enclosures. The booth was often entirely glassed in, and the user was plainly visible. This made for a lot of use on television and on the silver screen, including Superman's famous use of a phone booth as a changing room.
Try: See more on glass phone booths in film and TV at TV Tropes.

Phone book covers

A phone book cover is a plastic or vinyl hardware that fits over the phone book in a phone booth or enclosure to protect it from the elements.
Try: See more on phone book covers at WestSky Promotions.

International phone booths

A business that is considering doing a theater, film or TV project with phone booths might want to take a look at a selection of international phone booths to become familiar with how these kinds of structures still provide talk time from almost anywhere on the globe.
Try: See a selection of international phone booths at the PayPhone Project.

Cell phone booths

A cell phone booth is one that does not include a land line phone. It is installed specifically to let cell phone users talk without annoying everyone around them. It also provides a quiet atmosphere for those whose cell phones do not have very loud speakers.
Try: See more on how cell phone booths are popping up all over at Fox News.