Is it a bird? A plane? No, it's an Audi - Company Business and Marketing

Where can a modest Clark Kent dash to transform himself into Superman, now that the rise of mobile communications has struck down its latest casualty, the humble phone box?

BT has announced it has no plans to install new payphones because revenues from its 141,000 boxes have fallen by 37% over the last two years.

And it's not just the United Kingdom that's seeing public payphones close. According to Denise Kessler, a spokesperson for the American Public Communications Council, Fairfax, Virginia, representing independent payphone operators, usage is on the wane in the United States, which currently has 2.1 million payphones. "Since 1998 about 300,000 payphones have gone out of business," she said.

According to U.K. national regulator, Oftel, about two million Britons make calls from public telephones per day and BT is anxious to buck the downward trend in their usage. The carrier has announced plans to convert 2,700 sites into interactive phones for net access, e-mail and text messaging. Interactive booths are also finding some favor in the U.S. "We're having a lot of success, particularly in city centers," said Kessler.

The market for interactive kiosks is still immature in Europe.

"The outlook at the moment is that the number of terminals shipped will double in the next two years," said London-based Michelle Bone, research analyst, Frost & Sullivan Inc., of Mountain View, California. "But it's still a fairly minimal amount because of the cost to end users of these terminals. It's still an emerging and fragmented market."

Perhaps the answer lies outside telecoms. German auto-manufacturer, Audi A.G. of Munich, has developed a telephone box made from cast concrete and aluminum. Although intended solely as a product to demonstrate the company's design capabilities, the box includes features such as an internet connection, a webcam and a hands-free telephone.

"We were very excited about this project," said Romulus Rost, head of Audi's Munich design studio. "Particularly as it had nothing to do with cars."

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