Dangermouse just out of shot…

Slowly but surely, as possessing a mobile phone becomes mandatory, public phone boxes are being phased out. Taking their place, Wi-Fi broadband boxes that are accessible to all.

Or rather, accessible to all who have a Wi-Fi enabled device, and a pocket full of loose change.

Handlink, a UK based communications manufacturer, has designed a new Wi-Fi access point, designed to let you communicate whilst on the go. Like its predecessor, the phone box, it’s also operated on 10 pence pieces.

Boasting the 802.11b/g Wireless standard (which is, for all you who aren’t broadband boffins, pretty damn quick!), the new box, which is linked to a local broadband provider and bears a canny resemblance to a BT public phone, allows you to connect to the World Wide Web without having a mobile broadband account, providing your laptop is within range.

The kiosk, which basically works on the same pay-per-minute principle as a phone box, takes ten pence pieces in exchange for internet access.

After you’ve fed the machine with your loose change, the Handlink device will print you out a temporary internet pass code that you can use to access the web for a limited amount of time on your laptop, mobile or any 3G gadget.

Depending on how much petty cash you’ve parted with, you’ll have X amount of time to get onto the network and do what you need to do. And just like a parking meter, your time will run down, so if you want to stay a bit longer you’ll have to spend a few more pennies.

The ingenious contraption can be placed anywhere, but is currently being sold to hospitals, coffee shops, fast-food restaurants, train stations and airports, where there is money to be made from fee-based Wi-Fi.

Soon enough though, they will be everywhere, giving the phrase ‘spend a penny’ an entirely new meaning.

But will the idea take off?

A handy alternative to cyber cafes for those who don’t want to pay for hours of internet time when they only want to check their emails, as far as I see it, there is only one real major flaw with coin operated Wi-Fi, and that’s the fact that its coin operated.

In a day and age where using plastic is actively encouraged to pay for everything under the kitchen sink, is a ten pence guzzling Wi-Fi kiosk going to work?